Holiday From Real
by insaneartist
Summary: "Here I am, and here we go, life's waiting to begin; I could really use a wish right now, but I've got friends who will help me pull through." He gave me the look of the Devil, and now that I've been sent to Hell, I have to be stronger than ever before.
1. Gone Going

**Holiday From Real**

**Chapter One: Gone Going**

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I guess I should start at the beginning; it'd make more sense than just coming straight out with, "So here we are, chillin' around a basilisk that _might_ be dead, we're not really sure. I stabbed it a few times, but I think it knocked itself out when it thrashed itself against the wall behind it."

My name is Karma Kinzek, and I'd love to tell you that I come from an average, magical family. Actually, I'd love to tell you that I come from an average family in general. I'd love to tell you that I'm tall, or that my beauty stunned those around me, but I can't. I'm on the short side, and I guess I'm pretty; my step-dad always tells me that I'm ugly, but to Hell with him. I come from the muggle world, excuse me; I come from _your_ world. I come from the states; more specifically, I come from the projects. I won't bother telling you which project since they're all the same, but there are some things you should probably know about my surroundings.

I'm the oldest out of two; my little brother, Nalo, is the reason why I stay alive. I am the lovechild of my mother, Lucille, and one of her teenage boyfriends. Nalo, however, is the child of mom and her eleven-year boyfriend, Charlie. Charlie loves Nalo, but he's never really around. He's always off doing something with his friends; it's usually gambling or cheating on my mom. My mom used to be a fun woman, she used to be full of life and energy, but ever since she learned that Charlie cheats on her, she's been alternating between depression and being drunk.

Nalo and I share a room in our trashy apartment, his half of the room is the right side, leaving me the half with the door and the window; he's always wanted to trade sides, but I never felt comfortable with him sleeping on that side; our neighborhood has way too much crime for me to feel okay with him by the window. True, we are on the twelfth floor, but I don't care. I never take chances like that, even about things that are unlikely to prove my fears right, with Nalo. Even if there isn't something going on in the streets, Charlie and my mom often have late night fights. Sometimes Charlie wanders in, angry and drunk, and I refuse to let Nalo be near him when this happens; I gladly take the blows for Nalo.

I'm close to seventeen, and Nalo is ten years old. he has short but shaggy, brown hair, and blue eyes. He spends a lot of time outside, so he's rather tan, too. He attends the elementary school that is about ten minutes away from the high school I go to. By finding a lot of scholarships, and negotiating payment plans, Nalo goes to a cheap private school, but it's still a lot better than the public schools around here. I take him school shopping the week before school starts every year; he's very active, so he often ruins his pants. I usually just stitch them back up, or use a patch from very similar cloth, but when the school year comes around, I buy him new clothes. After I make sure he has all the supplies he needs, I take him shopping with me for my stuff. I spend whatever's left on my clothes; thanks to working on holidays, summers, and weekends, I usually get a pretty good amount left over. We both end up getting a lot of things, mostly because I've learned how to haggle, and because I've figured out where the best deals are. And now that I'm more comfortable with night driving, I don't mind going out of the way to go to the clothing outlets on the outskirts of the city. It's amazing how much clothing prices drop once Macy's and other department stores don't want a certain style anymore.

After school, I pick him up from his last class and drop him off at a daycare near my work. It's not the best daycare, it's not a fancy one or anything, but I'd rather him be safe and close than back at home. I never know what's going to happen there, so I'm not going to let Nalo stay there without someone who will actually protect him. After I drop Nalo off at daycare, I work; I work after school, on weekends, most holidays, and full time during summer; I work at the bookstore at the rich side of the city. The only time I don't work is when I stay home to take care of Nalo when he's sick, and when I have a sports or band related field trip. I was very lucky to get the job; the owners recently decided that they needed a young face in the front, hoping that one young face would bring in more. To all of our surprises, it actually did. I'm a fast learner, and when it comes to work, I'm a very pleasant and helpful, people person. I stared off with earning seven dollars an hour, but now I'm making fifteen dollars an hour. Mostly because the owners like me, I fix the computer programs when they're acting oddly, I help out the younger people who go in there, and I do a lot of the manual labor. When I work on weekends and holidays, I get paid eighteen dollars an hour; I asked the owners of the store to not take any money out for retirement, because I need the money as I earn it, and I'm only going to work there until college, anyway. Every two weeks I go to Bank of America and put my check in my account. I put half of this money in a "Stuff for Me" account, and then I put the other half in a "General" account, which is actually just code for paying some bills and taking care of Nalo.

When my shift is over, I pick him up right after work and we go to a local supermarket. I often can't spend too much money here, so Nalo begs me to get him chips, but I usually buy cheap, healthy things, like the foods needed for different types of salads. Every Wednesday I buy chicken, or a different meat, and every Friday, Nalo and I buy things for sandwiches, like turkey breast, small bottles of mustard and mayonnaise, strawberry jam, and creamy peanut butter. I do my best to make sure that we eat as healthy as possible as often as possible.

My friends and I grew up in the same building, practically on the same floor. We all go to the same high school, so we pack ourselves into my blue Oldsmobile and head out to school. Including Nalo and I, we're a group of eight. We're usually pretty crowded, but Oldsmobile's are pretty big, at least mine is. If I were to compare it to any other vehicle, I'd say a tank. I always dropped Nalo off first, and I'd watch to make sure he got to his class okay. Then, I'd drive us to our high school.

We all took band and choir since middle school, so now, in our junior year, we are in the advanced band and choir. Some of us are better in the arts, and some of us, like me, are better in academics. I, along with my male best friend, Buenaventura Torres, take the college level, also known as "AP", or advance placement, history, English, and science course. Our school makes us stay for eight periods, so the rest of our schedule is pretty relaxing. We take trigonometry during different periods; I take Spanish III, and he takes Spanish III for Native Speakers. Besides band/choir, we don't take any other classes, so we often get most of our homework done by mid seventh period. Our band teacher, Mr. Roho Bozzi, lets us go in his class whenever we're done with the rest of school day. By the begging of eigth period, most of us are in there. Mr. Bozzi, and my history teacher, Mr. Lamar Abar, makes us practice music until the whole boxing team is there.

What! Boxing?

Yeah, boxing.

When I was in seventh grade I was beat up pretty bad; that's one of the reasons why I pay for Nalo to go to a private school. At the time, Mr. Bozzi was a band teacher there, and he ended up taking me under his wing. In his less serious, youthful years, Mr. Bozzi was a frequent visitor of underground fight clubs; he loved the adrenaline, and the pure, physical contact. He had to stop attending them during the scheduled school days, though, because his bruises and other injuries were starting to scare the children. When he saw a nice student of his, me, get roughed up, he ran out and got rid of the kids for me. It didn't take him long to start training me to be a boxer, or get my friends and some of his other students into it. Once he had twenty kids, he went to the school board and persuaded them to allow our school to have a team, why not us? Numerous schools in the county, and in near by counties have boxing teams.

A group of underclassmen make up the Jr. Varsity team, while my friends, some other kids, and I make up the varsity team. The Jr. Varsity team trains two hours after school, and sometimes during Saturdays. We train once everyone is in the band room, three evenings a week, and every Saturday and Sunday evening. Buenaventura and I are the two best boxers on the team, so Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar create the training schedule around when we have to work.

Buenaventura is gorgeous to say the least; he's tall, has green eyes and light brown hair, a perfect profile, and the lightly tanned skin, showing off his Spaniard blood. He's also gay, which is why he joined the team. Older kids in our neighborhood would mercilessly beat him when they found out that he's gay, so he was quick to jump at the chance to become a boxer. He's now very fast, and very muscular; he hasn't been roughed up in a few years.

My female best friend, Jane Homes, is a tall tomboy. She has an older brother, he's about twenty-three, and he lives across the hall from me. She moved in with him at the age of five when their single father died. Jane is about five foot eight, she too, boxes, and she's in a punk-rock band with her older brother, Trevor. The nights that Nalo spends at his friend's homes, I pretend to be their roadie so that I can get into the basements of bars to watch them, and other punk bands play. Jane's artistic ability stretches far past the guitar and writing lyrics; she's an amazing painter, she can sketch like a professional, and she loves making things in ceramics and jewelry class. Most of my jewelry comes from Jane's work in her third period class.

A friend of mine that I met in my third grade class, Jeffery O'Neil, is also an artist and boxer. A group of kids on his floor used to trash his pictures and paintings; soon after he joined boxing, they left him alone. At five eight, he's only a few inches taller than me. He has dirty blonde, curly hair, and bright blue eyes. His nose is a little bit crooked, and his lips are on the thin side. He often supplies our group with comedic relief; he's very sarcastic, and very mentally quick. Jeff has a girlfriend, Kayla Slayton. She's thin, and very pale; she stands at five feet and seven inches, and is from the rich side of town. Kayla and Jeff met in one of his art classes in freshmen year, and by the beginning of sophomore year, the poor artist was dating the rich ballet dancer.

Doug Johnson is Jeff's best friend. Doug is six feet tall, has some olive undertones, and has medium brown hair and eyes. He joined boxing mainly because Jeff joined; Doug is an average, pretty funny, and somewhat quiet guy. He reads a lot, so he's not usually in the path of any of our neighborhood bullies. However, he still has his hardships; his mom is single, and he's the youngest child out of three boys, all of which are in their teen years. He lives exactly one apartment above the one where I live. His oldest brother is gang affiliated, while the middle son just doesn't really care for any rules but his own. Doug's close friend, T'uan McSweeny, lives in the apartment to the right of his. T'uan lives with his aunt, Tami, and his cousin, Leonard "Lazy Legs" Blattberg.

I'm not too fond of T'uan; he's often very rude or just plain stupid and weird in his attempts to be funny. He's six foot three, and boxing has made him very buff, so no one really messes with him, except, of course, for us. He's rather dark, his dad was African-American, and it shows on T'uan. He often mocks us for getting sun burnt in the summer, even though he occasionally gets burned, too. Regardless of that, though, we're actually pretty jealous of his dark skin. At least, Jane and I are; we're barely whiter than a sheet of computer paper, we often get sunburnt.

Then there's Leonard, or as we like to call him, Lazy Legs. Leonard is four times as dark as his cousin, T'uan, and stands at six foot five. We call him Lazy Legs because his right knee often pops in and out of place when we're running down hill as a part of our training. Other than that, he's an amazing athlete. He's fast, he's strong, and he's double jointed. Like me, he has brown eyes, black hair, and green eyes.

Actually, I have one green eye; with little hints of copper, and my other eye is a weird, brown, almost blue color. I have shoulder length, black, wavy hair, and I'm five foot four, almost five foot three. I'm pretty muscular, too; don't get the wrong idea about me, I'm not like a female body builder or anything, I'm still curvy, but boxing has put me into amazing shape. Allowing me to slide into size three pants; in some stores I'm a size five, in very few stores I'm a size two, and in most stores, I'm a size three.

It was the last two weeks of summer when Mr. Bozzi told us that the advanced band class has been offered to play as an opening for a small symphony in New York. It turns out that Mr. Bozzi recorded the sessions of music we played during the school year, picked the best, and sent them off. Just as he was deciding that his efforts achieved nothing, he received a letter in his mail about the opportunity. He immediately called them after he read the letter, and told us about it at the end of the next boxing practice. He helped most of us pay; we weren't taking from him though, we may be poor, but we're honest. We all set up payment plans with Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar so that we would fully repay them over the course of a year. I could have afforded the trip completely on my own, but that would leave Nalo with no money, so I too am doing a payment plan.

Our trip was amazing; we practiced every day for hours on end after Mr. Bozzi told us about the trip. We even learned and practiced the instruments that us as individuals don't need to know. Mr. Bozzi said that there would be nothing worse than getting there, and all of the sudden, someone, for whatever reason, couldn't play an instrument; we were all back ups for everyone. We even learned how to play instruments that we had no use of, at all. Mr. Bozzi wanted us to know how to play every instrument he could get a hold of; at first it was a "just in case" sort of thing, but after a while, it became a mixture of enjoyment, and for well roundedness.

During these summer days, I dropped Nalo off at the homes of his friends; it's cheaper than daycare, obviously safer than leaving him in our trashy apartment, and he enjoys it a lot more. Since he goes to a private school, his friends are mostly upper middle class; a few of them are rich. Over the last few years, I've embedded manners into his everyday behavior. When our mom was still our mom, she taught me well. She taught me how to work hard, and how to behave. Even though we lived in such a shitty area, she made the best of it. She would talk to me about the crime rates and the way things are happening around us, and she would tell me that it was my job to get me out of here. She said that I don't need to end up rich, but I need to end up out of areas like this. When we were in private, she'd make examples out of the kids that kept going back and forth from juvie, she'd tell me that if I worked hard in school, and if I took all the opportunities that I could, I'd end up alright, and I'd end up out of here. I taught these same things to Nalo.

On the last day I'd be in town before the trip, I picked him up from the home of one of his rich friends. The mother opened the door, but Nalo rocketed out, narrowly missing her side, and squeezed me. "Karma! Karma! Guess what!"

I smiled politely at Mrs. Mackey while lovingly patting the top of Nalo's head; he came up to my mid stomach. "What?"

He let go of me so I could bend down and hug him. I looked into his big, child eyes while he told me, "The Mackey's have a big piano!"

"A grand piano?"

He smiled and excitedly nodded his head up and down.

Mrs. Mackey smiled down at us, "Would you like to come inside, Karma? We'd love to hear your play the piano. Nalo has told us that you've been practicing the piano for a few weeks now."

"Amongst other instruments." We laughed, I've told her about Mr. Bozzi's practices.

She scooted to the side and extended her left arm behind her, "Please, come in. We'd love to hear you play."

I blushed; I was hardly dressed for this. I got ready for Jane's concert before coming to pick up Nalo, because I knew that it'd take me too long to drive here, drop him off at our aunt's house, and then drive back to Lane's Liquor Store's basement for the concert. The lead singer and Trevor got into a big fight last week, so Jane has made me practice with them. I am now their lead singer, at least, until Spencer comes back. That could be tonight, that could be two weeks, or it could be two months. Hell, it could be never; once Spencer sets his mind on something, it is forever like that.

I slowly walked into the Mackey home; it was large and beautifully decorated. I, on the other hand, straightened and teased my hair, and then put it up into a faux-mohawk. I was wearing a pair of brown pants that used to be my moms when she was a teenager; they're old, and they show it. It fit me well, however, if it's not cut up in one way or another, patches of the old, underground punk bands and rappers she used to listen to cover it. I couldn't tell you the type or brand of the shoes I was wearing. I bought them on my last trip to the flea market with Nalo; they're black and old, but in good condition, and they reminded me of Peter Pan. My black shirt wasn't old, but it wasn't classy. It's pretty much a girl version of a muscle shirt; it gets hot in the basement; if you're in the crowd, there's no personal space and a lot of pogoing and moshing. If you're on the stage, there's a lot of pogoing under intense lights.

Nalo pulled my hand while running in front of me so we could get to the piano. Mrs. Mackey asked me to play her what I've been practicing with the school band; the last song I played was Nalo's current favorite song, "Annie Use Your Telescope" by Jacks Mannequin. Every once in a while I would gently nuzzle the top of Nalo's head – he was sitting in between my legs to watch how I played – with my chin. I ended up replacing the name "Annie" with "Nalo", and I ad-libbed a few lyrics. When I was done, Nalo begged me to play another, but I told him,

"I can't Nalo, we have to leave now or we'll be late for aunties house."

Nalo pouted, but didn't whine. Mrs. Mackey then said, "That was wonderful, Karma, your high school band will make Mr. Bozzi a very proud man."

I got up and shook her hand, "Thank you, Mrs. Mackey." I then looked down at her hip and saw her shy son, Marshall. I smiled at him and he slowly smiled back up at me. Nalo grabbed his things while I talked with Mrs. Mackey and thanked her for letting Nalo stay and allowing me to play her piano.

"Oh," she gently slapped air, "It's no problem, honey. Nalo is a great little boy, and your musical talent is amazing."

"Thank you," I saw Nalo come into the room and said, "we have to get going now, but I hope to see you again soon."

"Me too, stop by any time."

I thanked her and walked out of her house with Nalo by my side, tightly holding my right hand.

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When we got there, we sounded fantastic; we didn't receive a standing ovation or anything, but the people clapped loudly and for a long time. Mr. Abar and Mr. Bozzi treated us to a wonderful dinner afterwards. We protested at first, but Mr. Abar said that we were already dressed classy, and we deserved it after such a great performance. We stayed in the restaurant for hours, mostly just talking and enjoying our fifteen minutes of fame. We had to leave the next day, our plane was scheduled to leave at nine, which meant we had to be completely packed and on the road to the airport at seven thirty.

Our flight was supposed to be a straight shot back to Chicago, but some plane official felt that the plane needed some sort of quick repair, so our flight was delayed an hour. We had to wait around in the airport, so Jane, Buenaventura, and I bought ourselves breakfast burritos. When we came back to the chairs where the group is, Karen was still flipping through an empty, old diary, and her friend, Jael was going through her luggage to make sure she brought all her things. Karen was annoying and rather slow, to say the least, but she could play any wind instrument, at any time, for any song. Jael, on the other hand, was bright, and my God could she play the violin, but she was always worried.

I locked eye contact with Jane and whispered through my teeth, "Don't make eye contact with Karen, she'll take it as an invitation."

Jane fought back a laugh and whispered back, "Okay."

I then did the following with Buenaventura, but I didn't realize until it was too late that he was in a mood to mess with me. "Hey, Karen!"

She immediately walked over, "Hey man! Did you see this thing?"

"No," he smirked at me, "what is it?"

"I don't know," Karen said while turning the book upside down, as if there was a cheat sheet to analyzing the thing.

I drew in a deep breath while Jane rolled her eyes. Karen has been looking at that ratty thing since we started talking about getting a breakfast burrito.

"It looks like an old diary,"

Jane looked over at me and whispered, "_Naaaw_."

I let out a small, silent chuckle; the only way you could tell that I chuckled was because I smiled and simultaneously heaved my chest.

Karen held it closer to Buenaventura, "There's a weird hole in it; I can't imagine what did that."

I didn't want to get sucked into a conversation about weird holes, so I winked at Jane. Not sexually, but in the "watch what I'm gonna do" way. I smirked at Buenaventura and said, "Aye, Baby Bueno,"

His eyes instantly shot over to me; he hates it when _anyone_ calls him that.

"Jane and I are going to go back to our chairs and luggage. We'll see you once you and Karen figure out the purpose of that ratty, old thing."

He breathed out slowly, but angrily, "Alright, I'll see you in a bit then."

Jane and I were silent until we reached our chairs. Once we sat down, we made eye contact and howled with laughter. If we weren't laughing, we were eating our burritos. I was about two thirds of the way done with my burrito before I started to feel a bit queasy. I looked at Jane and said, "I don't feel very well."

She looked at me, "I don't either."

I rubbed my stomach with my right hand, "Do you think these burritos have made us sick?"

Jane leaned into her chair, tilted her head up towards the ceiling, and then sighed loudly. "God, I hope not. I'd hate to have the shits on the plane."

I laughed, "Everyone would hate it if you have the shits on the plane."

She then laughed, but stopped and focused on the ceiling. "Hey, Karma…"

"Yeah?" I gave her a worried look.

"Is the airport a little… dark to you?"

I started to look around with actual focus, everyone in our group was. Even Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar stopped debating over nothing to look around.

Before anyone could say anything, Karen shouted out, "What have you done?"

We all looked over at them.

"I didn't do anything!" He shouted and tossed the last half of his burrito down onto the floor, "_You're_ the one who wrote in it!"

We all gasped as she moved a bit and the diary was in our view. It had a blue and yellow glow around it; the glow quickly turned into a powerful light. The pages started to quickly flip themselves, as if hurricane winds were making the pages move. We all leaned away from it; Karen tried to drop it, but it didn't fall to the floor. Instead of falling, it hovered in place and spun counter-clockwise. The pages stopped flipping, allowing a large blue and yellow beam to shine out of it. Before anyone could do anything, the area our group took up started to quickly and violently spin. Our things were sucked into the beam almost as soon as the beam itself appeared, and it didn't take us long to be sucked in, too.

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**A/N: Please review! I've put a lot of time into thinking out the plot and creating all the numerous characters I'm planning on using; I'd hate to waste my time updating and developing my characters if there's no interest in this story.**


	2. American Slang

**Chapter Two: American Slang**

We were slammed down onto cold, hard Earth. We were all dazed and sore from our fall, but eventually got up from our facedown positions. I wasn't the first one to get up, but I was the first one to realize where we were. "Son of a bitch!" I screamed and stomped the ground below me.

Jane slowly rose to her feet. Once she was standing up, she looked around, "Where are we?"

I pointed to the faintest sign of a path about forty feet from us, "You see that?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I hope to God that I just fell asleep on the plane or something, but I'm pretty sure that's going to take us to Hogwarts."

Jael sprung up and immediately started to freak out, "How could you know that?"

I angrily ran my hands against the sides of my head and wished I dressed normally for the airport. I'm a small woman, I can protect myself, but it always helps to play on societies fears, which is why I'm dressed up "punk." I put my hair up in a faux-mohawk, I decided to wear my mom's brown, tattered jeans, and I wore my rather trashy, female muscle shirt version of a The Distillers shirt. Plus, I wore a fake leather jacket; with a large stencil and red spray paint, I spray painted "Street Dogs" and their logo on the back.

"There," I pointed to the tip of a tower, "we're in the middle of no where because an old diary with a hole in the middle of it sucked us into some random place, and there's the tip of a tower from a castle."

"Well," Jael drew in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down, "lets be realistic here—"

"Realistic?" I screamed and bent closer to her from my waist, "Realistic? We got sucked into a BOOK. A book. A book in the airport that looked like the description of Tom Riddle's horcrux diary literally sucked us into… into what?" I screamed and stomped in circles, "We're not on a page, we're in a different _plaaaaaaaace_!"

Keb Keller, the most relaxed guy I've ever met, slowly approached me; "We should start walking towards the castle then. Maybe someone there can explain why we're here… or if we're really at Hogwarts."

I slid my fingers in between each other and placed the palms of my hands on the back of my neck. I drew in a few deep breaths before replying, "That's a good idea."

"But…" Lauren looked around, "Where's all our stuff?" Lauren is pretty girl; she has long, straight, blonde hair, cute facial features, and an amazing sense of style. Like me, Lauren has perfected haggling and figuring out the best sales so that she can get the cutest things possible for the lowest price possible. She dusted off her red, Victoria Secret sweat pants.

"I don't know," I sighed, "Hopefully they're in the castle. Lets start walking."

"Wait!" Mr. Bozzi shouted out while helping Mr. Abar up. They quickly took roll to make sure that we're all here, in the middle of nowhere, together. Mr. Abar walked in front of the group and slowly led us to the path, making sure that there weren't any dangers for us to come into contact with. We walked in silence; we were all too busy looking at the supposedly fictional world of Harry Potter.

"Well," I sighed as we started to walk up the steps to the large castle doors, "if we can see this place, that means we're not muggles. So at least we have that."

Harper started to laugh, and he laughed loud and hard. We all looked over at him with curiosity; Harper was the lead and main singer of advanced choir, but other than that, he was a very quiet, keep to himself sort of guy. He gently patted my back a couple of times before saying, "As long as we can find the bright side of things, I think we're going to be okay until we get back."

"Yeah," I weakly smiled and nodded to show that I agreed, "Until we get back."

Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar did their best to open the doors, but it was to no avail. Mr. Bozzi was ready to start slamming against it with his left shoulder, but Mr. Abar told him to wait. Mr. Abar knocked loudly for a minute or so, then we waited on the steps for three minutes. Just when Mr. Abar was about to knock again, an old man with a long, white beard opened the doors. Jael shouted, "How'd you do that?"

Lilly rolled her eyes and shouted, "With magic, dumb ass."

"Hey!" Beth slapped Lilly's arm and said, "Don't use words like that, we don't know what's acceptable here."

Lilly stared Beth down, but didn't say anything further. The older man adjusted his wizard hat and looked at our group of thirty or so random people. "Is it your luggage that's in my office?"

"Oh God!" Lauren tilted her back and slammed her hands on the area of her chest that covers her heart, "Thank you! I knew you wouldn't let me lose my good clothes!" Most of the group laughed at her while I walked up to the older man. I extended my hand for a handshake; after two or three seconds of looking at my clothing, he shook my hand.

"My name is Karma, Karma Kinzek." I let go of his hand, "My classmates here, and well myself to be honest, am terribly confused. Could we please speak with you in your office?"

The old man smiled, "Of course, please, follow me." Once we were all in the castle, the doors magically closed themselves; we followed him in silence, we were gawking at all the magical things happening around us. The paintings were moving and talking with one another, the suits of armor walked around, and ghosts were walking into rooms through walls. We walked up a very twisted staircase, but we ended up having to run up the last half because it was starting to go to another hallway. Those of us on the boxing team shot up the stairs, but the kids who are just in band almost didn't make it.

After a few more minutes of walking, the old man brought us to a door in the middle of five very close ones. I thought he was going to lead us into a broom closet, but the second I walked in was the same second I gasped. The room was huge; it was filled with his things, and to the right was a small staircase to another door, probably his bedroom. There was a sleeping phoenix by his desk, and a few talking portraits behind him. He sat down on the chair behind his desk and waved his wand in front of him a few times. Pencils, papers, and numerous other things transfigured into the necessary amount of chairs for our group. I sat down next to Mr. Bozzi, who sat down next to Mr. Abar.

The old man smiled, "My name is Albus Dumbledore, how may I help?"

Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar were silent with shock, so I quietly cleared my throat and rushed out how we ended up getting here, then I asked him, "What year is it?"

"It's nineteen forty-two."

"Aww man!" Lilly shouted.

I shushed her and leaned forward towards Dumbledore, but then Lilly said,

"Don't you tell me to be quiet!"

I turned my upper body towards her, "You best be quiet soon so we can hurry up and get out of here."

"Who made you the boss?"

I stood up and locked gazes with her, "Every year I am the winner at state championships. The only time I lost was my first year, and even then I was just the third placer. You wanna fight me? Then c'mon," I extended my hands towards her, and then into my chest, "fight me, we can fight, and I'll knock you out. So unless you wanna lose some teeth, you best be gettin' quiet."

Lilly shifted a little bit in her seat.

I continued to stare her down for thirty seconds before she blinked and looked away. I sat back down and drew in a deep breath. I looked into Dumbledore's concerned, curious eyes. "We need to get back to our own world in our own time, is there anyway you can help us?"

Dumbledore tapped the fingers on his left hand on the top of his table, "From what you've told me about your travels, it seems like your arrival isn't a mistake."

I was silent, opened my mouth an inch or two, and then tilted my head.

"Finding a diary that was a horcrux, and it have send you back into time," he chuckled, "and into a place that wasn't supposed to exist, well, that's no accident."

Mr. Abar gulped while Mr. Bozzi asked, "What do you think we were sent back here for?"

Dumbledore gently shrugged, "I couldn't make a proper assumption without knowing about the diary."

"Well…" Mr. Bozzi looked at me, "I didn't read the books."

I sighed and leaned forward, placed my head in my hands, and rested my elbows against my knees. "In the world we come from, your world is in a series called _Harry Potter_," I paused.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Harry Potter is the main character, he's born in nineteen eighty, and Tom Riddle, a student here now," I pointed to the floor to emphasize my use of time, "starts messing around hardcore with the Dark Arts in his sixth year, maybe even the summer before he starts his sixth year."

Dumbledore leaned back into his seat and looked at me with concern, but not with surprise.

"He eventually becomes the Dark Lord Voldemort, and he creates decades worth of pain and fear, and he tries to kill Harry because he's pretty much immortal but Harry keeps getting in his way of world domination, but Harry is good so Harry ends up defeating him in the last book and the wizard world goes back to being a happy place."

Dumbledore stroked his beard with his right hand.

I leaned a little bit closer to him, "Do you have any ideas?"

"Well," he breathed out in a way to show that he was thinking, "have you considered that perhaps you are here to save the, what'd you call it?"

"The Harry Potter World?"

"Yes, yes," he smiled, "perhaps you are here to save the _Harry Potter_ World."

I just looked at him.

"Didn't you start off by telling me that the author of these books got the idea in a dream?"

I was silent for a moment, "Yes."

"Well," he held his hands and leaned forward, "Not all dreams are fiction. Perhaps she was lucky enough to just catch a glimpse of a different world."

"Like what?" Jane spoke up and slowly rose out of her seat, "Like a parallel universe?"

Dumbledore shrugged and smiled, "I don't know. Maybe a parallel universe, or maybe we really are just a very well hidden secret. I really don't know."

I didn't say anything, and Dumbledore stayed silent. The silence allowed us all to hear Greggor and Ifan's conversation. Greggor, or as we call him, Greg, is the most talkative person in history. He always talks, he often makes us behind in history class; if he wasn't so into singing he'd probably make us behind in choir, too. Ifan, also known as "If And", always needs to question things. When they are together, no one can get in a word unless you scream it at them.

I slowly turned and stared at them, I kept my stare for a full minute before Greg looked at me. "What?"

"Did you hear that?" I laughed and smiled, but not in a good way. When I get extremely angry, I smile and I laugh, but you can obviously see that my eyes are not pleased. "_We_, **we**! We get to save the Harry Potter World!" I stood up and did a circle with my index finger to show that I'm talking about the whole group, "_We_ are going to be saviors. Us. A random group of kids from Chicago are going to save a world that's supposed to be fictional."

Mr. Abar slowly rose to his feet, "This is going to quickly become a fight." He eyed Greg, and then looked into my eyes, "The time we spend fighting over what we can't control is just going to make us stay longer."

I put my hands on my elbows and hugged myself; I slowly nodded my head up and down. Mr. Abar looked at Dumbledore and offered his hand; as they shook hands, he said, "My name is Lamar Abar, I am a history teacher."

Mr. Bozzi stood up and shook Dumbledore's hand next, "And I'm Roho Bozzi, I teach choir and musical instruments."

Dumbledore stood up and said, "Being how you two are not the appropriate age to be students, would you like to become professors while you are here?"

They looked at each other before replying in unison, "That would be great."

"I imagine that you'd like to teach your usual subjects?"

"Would that be possible?" Mr. Abar asked, "I… I can't teach wizard history."

Dumbledore looked at him with some concern, "I wouldn't have you teach something you didn't know. I, of course, will have to speak with Headmaster Dippet, but I am confident that he will approve, given the situation." Dumbledore walked around his desk and then said, "As you've already seen, your luggage seems to be at my left." he pointed at it with his left index finger, "Your wands are on top of your bags, please grab them, and then follow me to the Great Hall; you'll need to be sorted. What year are you kids in? Fifth year?"

I quickly did some math in my head to figure out what year Tom Riddle is in, "Yes, fifth year."

Mr. Bozzi looked over at me, so I mouthed, "Trust me." He nodded up and down twice before whispering something to Mr. Abar.

"Our wands?" Jane whispered to me.

I shrugged and started to look for my bags, "If we have to be sucked into a world that's supposed to be fictional, we can at least have the break of a wand."

She nodded her head, "True, true."

It took the group about ten minutes before we all figured out whose things were whose, put our wand in a secure place, and followed Dumbledore out to the Great Hall.

**

* * *

**

The sorting hat literally just finished sorting the last first year when Dumbledore brought us into the Great Hall. He told us to wait where the first years were just waiting as he walked up to Headmaster Dippet. They spoke too quietly for anyone besides the other teachers to hear, but Headmaster Dippet's facial expressions showed that things weren't going normally, or as planned. After several long minutes, Headmaster Dippet stood back up and somewhat happily – he was mostly confused, but he trusts Dumbledore –shouted, "Bring back the stool and the Sorting Hat!"

We made eye contact with each other for a minute or so before we all silently decided to form a line. Dumbledore took the hat and said, "Hogwarts students," he smiled and scanned the confused room, "this year, we are welcoming a new group of students to the school. They are all beginning their fifth year; please do your best to help make them feel welcome."

I looked at Jane and breathed out, "Not embarrassing."

She laughed until Buenaventura walked up to the stool; he was the first in line. After a few minutes, the house shouted out, "Slytherin!" Buenaventura shrugged and flashed us a half smile while the Slytherin's clapped and cheered. Next up was easily the most irresponsible guy I know, Paz Peters. He too was sorted into Slytherin. Next was Keb Keller, he was sorted into Gryffindor. After him was Jane, the hat took a few minutes, but decided that she should go into Slytherin. My turn was next, and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't totally stoked. I made myself comfortable on the wobbly chair and scanned the room while Dumbledore placed the hat gently on my head.

"_Hmm…_"

I was shocked for a second, but then I realized it was the Sorting Hat. I didn't really pay attention to its voice when it was sorting the others; I was too nervous to listen.

"_You're very smart, and very ambitious_…"

I smiled proudly and tried to look up at it, "Aww yeah, I'm gonna be in a house with my two best friends, huh?"

"_Oh no, no, no. You're much too brave and willing for me to put you anywhere but—_"

"Whoa! Whoa! Lets talk this out."

"_GRYFFINDOR!_"

In a high-pitched voice, Jane shouted, "Say what now?"

I laughed and looked at her and Buenaventura. While shrugging my shoulders, I said, "I tried. I even thought about the mean stuff I do."

Jane laughed as Dumbledore took the Sorting Hat off of my head. I slightly turned to get off of the stool, when I looked at the hat it said, "Nalo."

"Whaa—?" I couldn't ask the hat anything since Greg walked up. I quickly shuffled away and to the Gryffindor table, but I sat so that I could look at Jane and Buenaventura. About half an hour, maybe a little more time passed before we were all sorted. Annie Veela and Lilly Pavine were the only other two to get into Slytherin. My friends Jeff, Doug, Lazy Legs, and Lauren soon joined Keb and I at the Gryffindor table. Tyler, Fredrick, James, Natasha, Leena, Ann, Dave, Harper, Ifan, and Greg were sorted into Ravenclaw. The rest were sorted into Hufflepuff, the rest being: Kayla, T'uan, Karen, Nikola, Beth, Caitlyn, Tesla, Eva, Pandora, Luna, Caroline, and Alice.

Once everyone was talking again, and people were almost finished eating, I walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down directly across from Jane. She looked up at me while I sighed; with a mouth full of mashed potatoes, she said, "Whaa?"

I slowly and subconsciously started to rock back and forth, "Nalo."

Jane swallowed the potatoes in her mouth.

"Is time still moving forward without us? What's going to happen to Nalo?" I bit my bottom lip and fought back tears, "He's going to think I abandoned him."

Buenaventura looked over and leaned closer to me, "Karma."

I looked at his caring eyes.

"Nalo would never think that. He's going to know something happened; he knows that you love him way too much to just leave him."

Tears started to flow from my eyes, but I didn't make a sound. Just as I was sure that I had control over my voice, Dumbledore walked over to us with the group we originally came here with behind him. We looked up at him as he said, "Being how you don't have any uniforms, there are two tailors waiting in the Slytherin common room to take your measurements. All the uniforms will be ready by Saturday evening," schedules magically appeared in our hands, "for now, you'll have to wear the clothes you came here with." Dumbledore than stepped aside, "This is Tom Riddle and Abraxas Malfoy. They are Slytherin Prefects and will walk you all to the Slytherin common room."

Don't get me wrong, I love the Harry Potter Series, kudos to Jo, but… words did not do Tom justice; saying that he was gorgeous would saying the very least. His hair is short and dark brown, his eyes are dark, and his skin is pale, but it still has some color. His lips are medium sized, but bordering on thin, and his nose is perfectly straight. He's easily six feet tall; he has broad shoulders, and a strong, masculine jaw line. And he… he has a vibe about him, perhaps you've been near someone with the same, "It's okay, we can get naked" vibe.

Abraxas wasn't too hard on the eyes, either. He was just as tall as Tom, maybe an inch or so more, with blonde hair and cold grey eyes. His skin was pale, his lips were thin, and his shoulders were broad, too. His whole body looked powerful, both physically, and magically; he looked like he knew how to control magic very well.

When Dumbledore walked back up to the professor table, Tom cleared his throat and scanned our group. Us who were seated almost immediately stood up; he looked us over with curiosity and then said, "Follow me." Abraxas didn't say anything; he just walked by Tom's right side. We all walked behind him in silence, but once we were out of the Great Hall I made eye contact with Jane. I made an obvious head turn towards Tom, looked back into her yes, and did a humping motion. She immediately laughed out loud; I stopped two seconds before Tom looked over his shoulder.

Once Tom was focused on reaching the Slytherin common room again, Buenaventura walked in between Jane and I, made eye contact with both of us and then pointed at me, then at Tom, and then waved his finger left to right.

I shrugged my arms into a "W" as if to say, "_Whaaaaaat_?"

Buenaventura smirked and pointed at Tom, then at himself, and then did a few elaborate hip thrusts. I made eye contact with Jane and howled with laughter. Buenaventura glared at us while Alice power walked up to us and looked at him. She whispered, "Sorry kid-o's, but…" She smirked and then pointed at Tom, then Abraxas, then to herself before doing very elaborate hip thrusts that showed her three–way idea.

Everyone who saw her do this laughed; we laughed until Tom reached what looked like a brick wall. He tapped it in a certain way; he only tapped on certain bricks for about thirty seconds before a door suddenly appeared. He walked in while Abraxas said over his shoulder, "This is the Slytherin common room, hopefully you new Slytherin's memorized the way down."

It was very dark and cold down here, well, there were a lot of lights, but it was still dark. To tell you the truth, it was rather creepy. The floating candleholders were in the shape of skulls, and for every two regular lights, there was one green one. The room had a low ceiling, and it looked quite a bit like a dungeon. We all scanned the room's design before a tailor stood up and cleared his throat. We looked over to see two tailors standing about five feet a part, and behind round, small stool like things. The objects were obviously meant for us to stand on; they were perfect, three by three circles, and extra lightening was provided floating above it.

The two closest to the tailors stood on it first; I didn't pay much attention to what the tailors were doing, I was talking with Jane and Buenaventura about my Nalo worries. I didn't stop talking about it until it was time for Buenaventura and I to get fitted; Buenaventura stood on the one to the right, and I stood on the one to the left.

"Get in position," the tailors sighed in almost perfect unison.

I immediately put my hands behind my head and spread my legs to shoulder width; Buenaventura laughed at me. I looked over at him, "What?"

He laughed for thirty more seconds before saying, "How many times do you have to be searched for you to do that automatically?"

I realized my position and laughed too, "What can I say, Bueno? Those rich folks don't like me much when I'm not in the book store." I looked at how he was standing and stretched my arms straight out from my shoulders.

Bueno – we'd call him Buena, like his name would be shortened to, but he said that emasculated him – looked at me just as I was about to start talking about Nalo again.

"Take your jacket off, I can't get proper measurements with it on."

"Oh…" I quickly looked at the tailor working on me before taking my jacket off and tossing it into Jane's arms, "Sorry."

"Mhm."

I thought to myself, "He's quite the pleasant fellow." I looked back over at Bueno, but he tapped his foot and started to talk before me,

"Well, I'm running down the road tryin' to loosen my load, I've got seven men on my mind,"

I laughed, "Four that wanna own me, two that wanna stone me, one says he's a friend of mine."

Jane quickly started to air guitar and join in on our random session of song. Our tailors told us to turn around, allowing me to make momentary eye contact with Tom while singing, "Lookin' for a lover who won't blow my cover, he's so hard to find."

Bueno saw me do this and laughed, forcing Jane take his part of the song. The tailors finished their taking of measurements just as we finished the song. Jane quickly took my place while handing me my jacket. As I put it on, I saw that her luggage and guitar case was down here instead of in a room. I quickly walked over to it and took it out; Bueno saw his and did the same. We looked at an excited Jane, and then looked at each other. Bueno swung his arm up, and then back down while strumming a few notes. I fought back a laugh, locked gazes with him, and did the same.

With a very serious tone, he asked, "Street Dogs rock off?"

I strung a few notes for dramatic affect. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Bueno started us off, but I quickly joined in, and it didn't take us long to start jumping and thrashing around; our rock off quickly changed from our talent to how loud we could be. It also didn't take long for the Hogwarts kids to stare at us, or for those who were just walking in to stare at us either. When Jane was done being fitted, see squatted down, slammed her hands down as if she was playing the drums and sprung off to join us in our pogoing. Jane pogoed around and sang perfectly on time with us, but we stopped so she could have the part,

"Hey, I was always just another average kid, looking up to the Pistols, idolizing Sid! I guess my parents never really felt the same!" she pulled on a shoulder of my jacket and shouted, "Spikes and leather jackets hurt my family name! Now I'm on the streets! Now I've been locked out! Friends and punk rock music were the only way out!" We started to jump straight up and do three hundred and sixty degree spins into our energized crowd of friends; they started to shout and thrash around with. Most of the Slytherins looked either horrified or shocked, but some joined us in our jumping around.

Our rock off didn't end with the end of the song, nor did it end when the tailors were done. Our rock off ended when Professor Slughorn – Rowling's description was very true to him –walked into the Slytherin common room and shouted, "What is all the racket?"

We immediately stopped and looked at him. Bueno dropped his guitar and pointed at me, "She was the one who started it."

I rolled my eyes and told him, "No wonder you're in this house."

"Shut up."

I laughed and made eye contact with Professor Slughorn, "I'm sorry, Professor, we quickly got into… our rocking."

Jane and Bueno laughed at me while I flashed Professor Slughorn a charming smile. He looked me over and said, "I can see you're one of the new students, so I'll let it go this time." He drew in a deep breath, "But next time you and your friends behave in such a way at such an hour, I will give you all detentions and take away points from your houses."

I nodded my head up and down a few times, "We understand, sir. Thank you for the break, we won't rock so loud so late again."

Bueno and Jane smirked in a way that showed they refrained from laughing.

"You're welcome," he nodded once, "now go to your own houses, everyone. Lessons are tomorrow, you'll need rest."

"Yes, sir."

He nodded once more and walked back from where he came from. Once he was gone, I started to lightly play again while looking at my friends who are in Gryffindor. "I guess we better get out of here." They nodded and started to follow me while I played a bit louder and walked backwards towards the entrance and exit door.

Jane laughed, "Who are you, the Pied Piper?"

I laughed too, "You know it."

Keb grabbed Bueno's guitar and joined me in my guitar playing.

When Bueno realized that we were leaving with their instruments, he shouted, "Hey! You can't take our things!"

I laughed while leaving, "We're Gryffindors, we do what we want."

"No," Jane put her hands angrily on her hips, "You guys do what's best. _We_ do what we want."

"Whatever," I saw that Jane was positioning herself to grab her guitar from me, so I didn't step out of the room until she lunged for me, but she ended up out of the room, too. She was going to grab it away from me anyway, but she stopped when she realized that she couldn't get back in. She had her wand, but she didn't know the way to tap at the bricks. I laughed as she banged her right hand against it,

"Bueno! Open the door for me!"

Bueno snickered, "If you can't open the door yourself, you can't enter."

"Argh!" She shouted; us Gryffindors were going to start walking away, but we decided to stay for the laughs, "Bueno! Open this door or I'll never open it for you when you're stuck on this side!"

Bueno laughed, "Sorry, Jane—"

"Damnit, Bueno! I want to go sleep, let me in!"

He loudly sighed, "Janie, I'm sorry, but—"

"Don't call me that! Just open the door."

"I can't—"

"Can't what? Stop being a dick?"

"You can't say that in this time, Jane."

She nodded to show she heard me. "Bueno! Stop being an asshole—"

I slowly stopped playing her guitar, "You can't use that word either,"

"AAGH! BUENO! YOU DOUCHER—!"

"You can't—"

"I KNOW!" She banged both her hands against the wall, "OPEN THIS DOOR OR I'LL KILL YOU TOMORROW IN CLASS!"

Bueno was going to let her in, but he was going to have some fun with it first. I was quickly starting to become tired, so I started playing the guitar again and led the group to where I imagined the Gryffindor Tower would be. I didn't go there off pure intuition, though, I asked the paintings along the way for directions; it didn't take us too long to get there. Once we were there, the Fat Lady wouldn't let us in because we didn't know the password, but one of the paintings near her told us, "Wingleworms."

I looked at it with a curious, slightly disgusted look before looking at the Fat Lady and said, "Wingleworms."

She sighed angrily, gave the painting that told us the password the evil eye, and then swung open.

* * *

**A/N: Please review! :D**


	3. Amateur Spitin'

**Chapter Three: Amateur Spitin'**

**

* * *

**

Lauren was in the same room as me and three other girls that we didn't know. They were friendly to us, though; they introduced themselves as Algie Longbottom, and Deva and Naresh Patil; the Patil's are cousins. Lauren had to wake me up twice before I actually got out of bed and started to get ready. I fell asleep way too late to willingly get up at six thirty. Deva lent Lauren something that's similar to a hair curler, so Lauren gave her blonde hair even, large curls all the way down to her shoulders. She wore a long sleeve, yellow shirt, –it's very cold here– and a red skirt. While I was brushing my teeth, she popped into the bathroom – it turns out that every room has its own bathroom connected to it – and asked me, "Do you know where my yellow flats are? The ones with the bows?"

I nodded, but put my left index finger up to signal that I need one more minute of brushing before I'm willing to talk. She patiently waited for me and looked away when I spit out the toothpaste in my mouth and gurgled water, some mouthwash, and then water, again. "You put them in with my shoes because they didn't fit well in your bags."

"That's right!" She snapped her fingers to show that she remembered, "Thanks, Karma."

"You're welcome." I splashed some water on my face to wake myself up a little bit more. It didn't take me long to get dressed; these people already think we're freaks, so I'll wear my "punk" clothes for class while I still can. I tossed on my red Leftover Crack, short sleeve shirt, and my beat up, yellow jeans. I searched through my shoes before Lauren sat on my bed and said, "You kicked them under your bed last night."

I yawned, "When did I do that?"

She smiled widely, forcing back a laugh, "After you tripped over them when you put them by your luggage."

"Oh," I smiled, "That's right." I had to go to the bathroom at least three times last night, and each time walking there and walking back to my bed, I tripped on my shoes. I fished my right arm under my bed for a minute before I grabbed my left Peter Pan shoe, and then my right. I slipped them on and went for the door, but then Lauren said, "We still have some time before breakfast, do you want to put on some make-up?"

"What?" I turned, "You woke me up early, to be early for the early breakfast?"

She nodded her head up and down, "Yes. This'll put your sleeping pattern back to normal."

I sighed, I couldn't yell at her for being nice. "I guess so."

"Good," she smiled, "I already put your make-up bag on the bathroom sink." She got off of my bed and sat down on hers. She took out a book from one of her bags and said, "I'll wait for you here."

"Ok." I lazily walked into the bathroom and saw that the Patil cousins were doing their make-up. The caught a glimpse of me and tensed for a split second, but quickly relaxed again.

"Good morning, Karma." They said in unison.

"Good morning." I smiled politely, grabbed my things, and stood at the opposite counter, the one behind them. I put on some primer so that my make-up would last longer, and then I applied a little bit of foundation to my face and neck so that my skin color would be smooth and even. After lightly powdering my face, I lined my eyes with black, liquid eyeliner in the style of cat eye; my eye make-up was a little heavier than I wanted it to be, so I didn't add any color to my lips, just a some gloss. I put all my things away in my bag, scooted it a place where it wouldn't be in the way, and pocketed my lip-gloss. When I got out, Lauren put her book down and said,

"You know, girls don't wear pants here, especially not in the forties."

I shrugged, "I know, but I already dressed similar to this yesterday, so I'm not going to bother to fake my taste now."

She shrugged and smiled, "Okay."

I grabbed my faux-leather jacket off of one of the tops of the four-poster bed, and walked down to the common room. The people down there widened their eyes at my appearance, but they didn't stare. Keb and Doug were chilling on one love seat, while Jeff and Lazy Legs were on another. Doug slowly got up and said,

"Dumbledore left us messenger bags filled with all the school things we need. You should take out some of the textbooks before we leave."

I went to pick mine up, but its weight caught me off guard, so I heaved it up; Lauren did the same thing. We quickly trotted up to our room and looked at the textbooks. Dumbledore put pieces of parchment with the words, "Not a class copy." inside the front page of the books that we didn't need to take with us. Once we sorted through our bags, we put them back on and found that they're significantly lighter. I saw my fresh white belt with the belt buckle Bueno made me in his welding class last year, brass knuckles that I can actually take off and use, grabbed it, and put it on while we walked back down to the common room. Once we were all together, we walked to the Great Hall. We almost got lost on the way down, but paintings started to tell us how to get there.

We chose the farthest end of the Gryffindor table to make it clear that we want to be alone. I made eye contact with Jane and waved her over, but she nodded no.

I gave her a curious look.

She "popped her neck" in the direction of Tom Riddle. It didn't take me long to realize that she was in the perfect position to stare at him without being extremely obvious. I smirked and shouted, "Janie, come over here with us!"

Everyone immediately looked at me; they drank in my outfit and then went back to their conversations and breakfasts. "Janie! Come on!" I waved my right hand in a "come hither" motion; "You've looked at him long enough! Come be with your friends!"

Her cheeks instantly turned the same shade as my red shirt. She huffed and did her best not to stomp over to me. Doug, Jeff and I were laughing while she glared and sat down across from me. "I can't believe you just did that."

"Oh?" I started to eat the warm oatmeal that appeared in my bowl, "You wouldn't cock block me like that?"

She pressed her lips together to fight back a laugh, "We're not talking about me."

I laughed before putting another spoonful of oatmeal into my mouth.

**

* * *

**

Breakfast passed quickly; us fifth year Gryffindors had our first class of the day with the fifth year Slytherins. We walked in a large group, but Jane, Bueno and I walked behind our fifth year prefects – mostly Tom and Abraxas – so that we wouldn't get lost on the way down to the potions dungeon. We all ended up there ten minutes early; the fifth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were having a lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts exactly across the corridor from us, so Jane and I stood in patience with Natasha and Leena. Jane made eye contact with Natasha, "DADA isn't down here, is it?"

"No," Natasha's eyes flickered to Leena, "but it's rather dark down here, so the professor is going to have us practice our patronus charms down here. He said that the brighter the charm, the more powerful it is."

"Ahh," Jane replied, "it makes sense that he'd take the class somewhere dark, then."

"Yeah," Leena sighed, she looked tired, too.

Natasha looked at her with hints of concern, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Leena looked at Natasha then back down to her feet, "I'm just sleepy."

I cut the moment short by asking, "Where are the professors anyway?"

"I don't know," Natasha looked up at me, "I saw Slughorn on the way down here, he was in the middle of his breakfast, he probably won't be down here for another ten minutes."

I frowned crookedly and then looked at Leena. I grabbed her right hand with my left and started to walk towards the potions room door. "Why are you taking me here?"

"I overheard some Slytherin's last night saying that Slughorn lost a bet with the choir professor and now has to store a grand piano in his potions room." Abraxas' eyes flickered back and forth from a speaking Tom and a slightly frustrated me. When we made eye contact, I asked him, "Excuse me, cute blonde prefect,"

Jane and Bueno chuckled while Abraxas lightly blushed and the rest of the girls silently judged me; you could tell from their eye contact. Abraxas smirked, "Yes?"

"Will you please unlock this door for me? I just bought a new wand before the school year started, and I can't quite control its full power yet." I bit my bottom lip and looked him over to boost his ego, "You look like you control magic well, so will you please unlock this door for me?"

He smirked and walked over to me, "It'd be my pleasure…" he looked me up and down.

"Karma," I smiled, "My name is Karma."

"Well," he looked me over again, "It's nice to meet you, Karma." He then magically, but nonverbally unlocked the door to the potions classroom.

"Thank you," I smirked and gave him a very quick wink while I walked in and gently tugged Leena behind me. His eyebrows rose with shock and interest, while a small group of girls behind him saw and started to whisper amongst themselves; oh the rumors will be fun.

The numerous floating candles lit the room well, so it wasn't hard for me to find the grand piano. It was near the far left corner; I walked over to it while Leena whispered, "What are you doing?"

"Playing you a song," I replied and seated myself on the small bench in front of the piano. I cracked my knuckles, stretched my arms forward and curved my back for a minute before sitting up straight and running my fingers up the keys. I looked at her and said, "I obviously didn't write this, but I was listening to it before we got here, and I think it applies to you rather well."

She didn't say anything; she knew that I meant her and Natasha. You see, her and Natasha have been in a relationship since almost the very beginning of freshmen year. They never came straight out and said, "Aye! We're dating! So to Hell with you guys!" but they went everywhere together. Natasha would walk Leena to all her classes and then run back to hers so that she wouldn't be late; every once in a while, when it was just them, or them and a few of their friends, Natasha would kiss Leena goodbye and then run off to her class. They did everything together; they came to school together, they hung out during breaks together, they went to lunch together, they took their electives together, they left school together, etc… You didn't have to be a genius to figure out that it was killing them not to hold hands right now; they always held hands. However, we all doubted that they could show any romantic affection for each other now that we're in the forties.

I cleared my throat while I started to play, "There, There Katie" by Jack's Mannequin. I immediately replaced the name Katie with Leena and adjusted my voice to match the volume of the piano, "_Leena, you're a brave girl, and I know it's only just started…"_

Natasha stood next to Leena and smiled; Leena looked at Natasha, smiled, and stood a little bit closer to her. I started to play the piano with more passion, closed my eyes, and let the music flow from me. "_And Leena it's a strange world, girls can get so broken hearted…_"

Leena hugged herself and bit her bottom lip to keep her happy tears from flowing, "_Leena, you're a brave girl; courage is something I'll need now, because it's been a hell of a day I've spent fading away…_" I started to gently rock my body to emphasize my finger movements, the sounds of the piano, and the sound of my voice.

Natasha stared at Leena with pure happiness while Leena closed her eyes and smiled, letting the words and sounds take control of her morning emotions. "_The sunshine's been missing, but Leena, don't believe that it isn't there. Oh and Leena… Leena, be happy; this world can be ugly, but isn't it beautiful…_"

I stopped singing after the last lyric, but I didn't stop playing the piano. I started to add more notes to the ones the song offered. I stood up and smiled at her while playing the piano with a little more speed, "Leena," I gradually stopped playing the piano. When I was almost done, I said, "You're a brave girl."

Leena slowly opened her eyes when the music stopped playing. She smiled at me and whispered a soft, "Thanks, Karma."

I just smiled, I would have said something, but someone started to loudly clap from the back of the room. I looked over to see Professor Slughorn slowly make his way through the crowd of students, "That was excellent," he said with a smile. I blushed and gently wrapped my right hand around my left elbow,

"Thank you, Professor Slughorn."

"Don't thank me for speaking the truth," he smiled.

I blushed a little bit more.

"I'd love for you to continue to play for us, but we have a lesson to start."

I breathed out with a timid smile, "Oh, yeah, sorry." I quickly sat next to Jane at a desk towards the back of the room.

"However," he smiled as I situated myself, "if we have time after class, I'd love for you to play."

I smiled and replied, "Okay, that sounds great."

Much to my pleasure, there wasn't any time left after class. Slughorn talks a lot, especially when Tom is flattering him. We barely had time to put our notes back into our bags once class ended; we were lucky that our next class is DADA and is being held across the corridor today, otherwise we probably would have been late. Professor Merrythought greeted us all at the door with a smile and a handshake. He turned out to be a kind, but serious man. The usual Hogwarts kids went first with producing patronus', a few of them had trouble, so the concept of having to do it too wasn't as nerve wracking as before. To calm us down, Jane and I quietly talked about how cool it would be to use an empty dungeon for our next for-fun show. No teachers or other staff members sleep down here; once eight o'clock hits, the dungeons are totally empty. There are plenty of empty classrooms just begging to be filled with our sounds; we decided to look around later today and do a gig on Friday night.

In the middle of our planning, Professor Merrythought smiled with a wild-eyed look; he looked at me and said, "You there, with the yellow pants, come here."

I gulped and slowly walked to the front of the room.

"Lets practice your patronus."

"Uhm…" I blushed, "okay." I slowly raised my wand to the appropriate height and said, "Expecto Patronum." A faint, silver light twisted out of the tip of my wand.

"No, no, no." Merrythought shook his head from left to right, "You have to put feeling behind it, you have to put a lot of joy and focus into it."

Bueno snickered.

I looked at her over my shoulder, "Oh shut up, you probably won't be any better your first time up."

Bueno shrugged, "What are you gonna do? Box me?"

I said, "Ha. Ha. Ha. Keep talkin' smack like this and I will."

"Whateva," Bueno crossed his arms across his chest, "Just 'cause you're the top female boxer in the Chi-City competitions doesn't mean—"

"That I won't punch you in the jaw? It means exactly that. You being my best friend means I won't punch you in the jaw."

Jane and I laughed.

Bueno rolled his eyes.

Merrythought cleared his throat.

I looked up into his eyes and said, "My apologies sir. I'll try again now." I tried several more times, each time only getting slightly better. Merrythought smiled wildly and walked over to a cabinet. He looked at me over his shoulder and said, "I have a good feeling about your magical abilities, so you're going to be the first one to try this out in this period."

I gave him a curious look.

He opened the cabinet and stepped to the side in the same second. A dark, hooded, floating creature started to float towards me. Its hands were long and large like giant white spiders; my eyes grew to the same size as my head. I was frozen for a second, but as it started to try to suck out my…my what? My soul, I didn't know what it was doing, but I didn't like it, so it had to end. I shot my wand hand up at it and shouted, "_Expecto Patronum!_" A life-sized hippogriff shot out of the tip of my wand and clawed at the dementor. My patronus literally filled the room with so much light that it was difficult to see, but the scene against the dementor was easy to look at.

Merrythought dropped his wand and his jaw as the dementor evaporated away. He looked at me with large, impressed eyes. "You just _**destroyed**_ the dementor."

I blushed a little bit and smiled proudly.

"I… my God!" Merrythought shouted with happiness, "Stay here, I have to go get Horace!"

As Merrythought ran out of the room, I slowly turned until I saw Bueno. I sighed proudly and looked him in the eyes, "Did you see that? Or was it a bit to bright for ya?"

He playfully sneered and rolled his eyes.

"Hey," I snapped my fingers to catch his gaze, "you see this?" I put my fingers together and stretched out my hand. I then brought it up to my left shoulder, leaned my body to the right, and brushed it off. I did the same basic thing with my right shoulder, "You can go ahead and call me the best now."

"What, you Muhammad Ali now?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm pretty sure he's only two right now."

Bueno laughed, "I still think I'm a better boxer than you, and I bet my patronus is gonna be twenty times more bad ass than your hippogriff."

I laughed, "Oh I'm sure it will be."

Before Bueno said anything, Merrythought jogged back into class. Slughorn stepped in front of him and tossed a smokey vile twenty feet in front of me. The second the vile broke, a dementor stretched out of it and started to float towards me. I gulped and froze again, but I took a step back and pointed my wand at it as it started to tower over me. I shouted, "_Expecto Patronum_!" with all my heart; my large hippogriff patronus flew out of my wand, shrieked as if it were shouting a battle cry, and attacked the dementor. Once again, its light filled the room, and it clawed at the dementor until it was completely destroyed and evaporated.

Slughorn dropped his wand and his jaw. After a moment of being baffled, he looked at me and said, "Oh… My… Lord." He drew in a deep breath, "The only time I've ever seen a patronus _that _powerful was… I don't know!"

I pressed my lips together, tilted my head to the left, and shrugged.

Out of nowhere, Bueno shouted, "_Expecto Patronum_!" I turned to see a very fast wolf jump out of his wand, but it was no match for my hippogriff. My patronus turned and swatted it into the wall. Bueno's wolf hit the wall, slid to the floor, and charged at my hippogriff. My hippogriff flew up, pretty much curbed stomped the wolf, and then tore it apart.

I pumped my palms up into the air and jumped around in a circle; in a rather masculine voice, I shouted "Awww yeah-yea!"

Bueno laughed and clapped, "Alright, alright, calm down, Kanye West."

I slowed my victory dance, but didn't stop. I laughed at Bueno's comment until he said,

"Alright, you got me good here. I tried to prank you, and you got me."

I continued my dance for thirty more seconds before stopping and saying, "A wolf is still pretty cool. Not twenty times as _bad ass_ as a hippogriff that can curb stomp, but still cool."

Bueno laughed, "I'll agree with you here."

Before I could reply, Slughorn slapped his left hand onto my right shoulder, looked down at me, and shouted for the whole class to hear, "You, Miss Karma Kinzek, are the first female to be a part of the Slug Club!"

All the kids that got sucked into this Harry Potter universe with me clapped and cheered for me; some of the actually Harry Potter kids clapped for me, most of them were budding feminists, but some were good sports. Abraxas and Tom clapped; Abraxas whispered something to Tom and they both smirked. I didn't like either of their looks; Abraxas' eyes were clouded with a twisted sort of interest, like he wanted to try me, and Tom's eyes burned into my skin, as if he wanted to tame me.

I made eye contact with Tom and smirked at him.

He raised his brows from shock; he didn't think I could see him.

**

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**

No homework has been assigned yet, so at the end of the academic day, Mr. Bozzi walked us to the band and choir room that Headmaster Dippet provided him with. Mr. Bozzi described the types of instruments that he teaches us to Dumbledore; Dumbledore transfigured every day, easily replaceable items into the needed instruments. On top of that, Dumbledore taught Mr. Bozzi how to magically amplify instruments and voices; music lessons were set to start the next day, and we were stoked. On top of that, Mr. Abar got a pretty cool history room, filled with maps of all over the world, and decorations from all different types of cultures and eras; naturally, his classroom was next door to the Muggle Studies classroom.

After we took a tour of their rooms, we were told to get into our exercise outfits and meet them on the Quidditch field for training. I wore my red short shorts, a yellow sports bra, and a yellow tank top. I met up with Bueno and Jane near the Great Hall; the Slytherin Quidditch team was leading them to the Quidditch field. Which is total nonsense, you'd have to be completely oblivious to the campus to not be able to find your own way to it, there's even a path to follow! But once I jogged up and in between Bueno and Jane, I realized why they said yes to the guide offer; the Quidditch pants are _tiii-eee -ight_! They're tighter than football pants, only, minus all the padding; these pants were incapable of lying for these boys. Which is totally fine by me, it looked like most of them were well endowed. I made eye contact with Bueno, then Jane, and then nodded with a devious smirk. They chuckled, but obviously agreed with me.

After we got there, we only had to wait a few more minutes for the others to get to the field. The kids who are solely in band situated themselves near us and played music for us. They matched the speed and volume of their songs to our moves; Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar didn't kid around with our boxing. They made our exercise routines hardcore, besides the obvious boxing training, they filled it with fast paced combos of mountain climbers, then jumps out of the mountain climbers, and then tucks – when you jump up while bringing your knees into your chest, using your abdominal muscles. Our workouts were always highly intense and filled with complicated moves to improve our speed, our coordination, and our overall fitness. When our one our session came to an end, we shouted with relief. We chugged our waters and walked around with our hands stretched above our heads, talking in between deep breathe.

The Slytherin Quidditch team – they had tryouts this morning so that they could start practicing right away – hovered on their brooms several feet above the grass of the field and about ten feet away from our group. The team captain smirked at his team and then said to us, "What's this?"

Tyler panted out, "Training."

"For what?"

"Boxing."

"Well," the captain sneered, "it looks absurd."

Before Tyler or either of our coaches could reply, I looked at him and said, "And Quidditch looks homosexual."

He made eye contact with me and snapped, "What?"

I shrugged and took another drink of my water, "Quidditch is homosexual; it's a bunch of boys playing with balls while they're in tight pants."

Before the captain could snap anything at me, I added, "We watched you play a little bit, why don't you watch us for a little bit? We'll show you what a real sport is."

Mr. Abar sighed, "Karma, why do you always have to start shit?"

Mr. Bozzi laughed and shouted, "This is going to be great! I love fights."

Mr. Abar knew he was alone in his cause, so he retrieved a pair of gloves for Bueno and a pair for me. Mr. Bozzi took the items from Mr. Abar and handed them to Bueno and me. He looked over at the Slytherin team with obvious excitement, "This is going to be great! These are our two very best fighters, they win every year at finals!"

This meant nothing to the team.

With more excitement, Mr. Bozzi said, "The routine we just did has got their adrenaline levels through the roof!" He threw his hands up for a minute to emphasize his point, "This is going to be great!"

Mr. Bozzi made the rest of the people give us space while Bueno and I put on our gloves. "Damn," I said while looking up at Bueno.

"What?"

"We didn't put in mouth guards, and now we have these gloves on."

Bueno pressed his lips together and quickly moved his head over his right shoulder and then back towards me, "Damn."

Mr. Bozzi saw that we were ready, but weren't doing anything. He hollered at us, "What's the hold up?"

I looked over at him and shouted, "We don't have our mouth guards!"

He sprung up from the grass, "This is going to be great!" He shouted and ran over to the trunk of our boxing things. He searched through mouth guard cases before he found Bueno's and mine. He ran over to us, saw that we had our gloves on, and quickly put them in for us. Bueno and I moved our bottom jaws for a few seconds to make sure our guards were in well, then we locked eye contact and started to circle each other.

The band slowly started to play music for us to jump to. Bueno did a quick lunge and punch combo, but I jumped out of the way and punched him in the side. Mr. Bozzi shouted at the Slytherin's, "You saw that? Good!"

Mr. Bozzi leaned forward to watch more intently while Harper shouted, "_Here we are now! Entertain us!_"

I jumped around quite a bit, I even did some fancy footwork that I know that Bueno can't quite do yet. I smirked as he kept throwing punches at me, but kept missing; we're very close friends, but right now, we're competitors. This being so, I wasn't going to stop him from wasting his energy in the forces of his punches. Bueno and I are on good terms, but we're always competing with each other and teasing each other; as much as we care for each other, this match has been long overdue.

Harper jumped out and started to shout out the lyrics to Limp Bizkit's song, "Break Stuff." My already high adrenaline was starting to overwhelm me, now, hearing this song, I couldn't help myself. I could tell that Bueno was in the same stage as me: no sense of sound, taste, or ability to speak; it's just touch and feel now, punch and pain, winner and loser.

Bueno tossed a punch at me, but I already knew this move from watching him during championships; I ducked out of the way and put up my right arm to deflect his surprise left hook. Once his hook made contact with my block, I jumped into my jab. All the air in his lungs flew out of his mouth. As he stumbled backwards, I shouted, "Sorry for the party foul, homie."

He laughed and went to hit me again, but instead of ducking this time, I backed up; he didn't expect this, sending me into a roll of surprise, spur of the moment, invented moves. Mr. Bozzi shouted, "You see this?" He jumped up and pointed at Bueno, "Bueno is _easily_ the strongest on the team, but he falls into repetition!"

Within a moments time, I lunged forward and jabbed him in the chest. Then I jumped back up, uppercutted him, leaped to the side and got him with a right hook. Bueno stumbled back quite a bit, but didn't fall. Mr. Bozzi was sky high, "And Karma!" He pointed to me, "She's the fastest on the team, and she quickly goes into a very creative mode!"

Bueno pretended to lunge at me, but I know him better than that. I leaped to his left side and delivered four jabs, two high ones, one into the side of his chest, and one at his hip. He stumbled again, but I didn't wait for him to get his balance back this time. I jabbed him in the side, did a cross into his chest, and then a hook to his face. He did a three hundred and sixty degree turn, fell down onto the grass, and then stared to pant. He tossed his gloves off and took out his mouth guard. He slowly rose to his feet, slowly put his mouth guard away, and looked at me. "You win."

I shouted in happiness, tossed my gloves off, and took my mouth guard out, too. I did three hundred and sixty degree jumps to Mr. Bozzi and put my mouth guard away. I started to jump around and pump my fists into the air, "I! AM! THE! GREATEST!"

Bueno laughed weakly, "Not only do you knock'em out, but you pick the round."

I laughed and jumped around, "Ya'll can call me the female Muhammad Ali!" I turned to look at Bueno, but as I did so, he jabbed me in the face. Everyone immediately stopped talking. I stumbled into Abraxas, but didn't think much of it. I pushed myself away from him and back onto my feet. "What. The. FUCK!"

Bueno looked angry, I've never seen him like this; we've never had a fight and ended up like this. I threw my arms out into a slight "W" and shouted, "What? What? You want me to kick yo ass twice, huh?"

Bueno put his guard up and started to jump in place.

"Come on," I waved my hands to signal for him to run over to me, "Go ahead! Fuck around and find out!"

Before Bueno could add anything, Lauren grabbed a trumpet and started to play, "Where the Hood At" by DMX. I laughed; Lauren is very feminine, but she still loved a good fight. Harper and Lazy Legs started to jump up and down and scream out the lyrics to "Where the Hoot At." Bueno and I circled each other for thirty seconds before he lunged at me; he expected me to back up like last time, but I didn't give him that. I straight up jabbed him in the face, and I jabbed him hard. He shrieked from the surprise of the pain and stumbled backwards. I punched him in the chest, the stomach, and got his face again with a left hook; he fell onto the grass before the song reached the middle. I thought he was done this time, but he kicked out his right leg and tripped me. He jumped up as I fell; he was going to straddle me, but I rolled out of the way, causing him to fall onto the grass again. I quickly straddled his back, grabbed his hair, and slammed the side of his face into the ground. I jumped up and started to jump left and right while shaking my fists towards the ground.

He popped back up and shouted, "You crazy bitch!"

"What?" I screamed and used my left hand to cup my right ear, "I'ma bitch just because I'm better than you?"

Now the whole boxing team and the band members popped up and egged us on, even Mr. Abar couldn't help himself. The Slytherin team watched with wide, interested eyes.

"You're a bitch because you're! You're just a crazy bitch!"

I laughed and put my guard back up, "You're the one who fuckin' attacked me!"

Bueno snapped and ran at me; I jumped out of the way, so he tried to kick me. I punched him in the thigh; he shouted in pain, but I grabbed his foot before he could fall down. I pulled him to me, and used his own momentum to jab him in the chest.

He fell onto his back, and he was going to stay down, but Harper and Lazy Legs started to shout out the lyrics to "Party Up in Here."

I could see that he was going to jump back up, so I straddled him. I delivered a perfect right hook to his jaw and then jabbed him in the chest. I pinned his wrists to the grass and shouted, "You got enough now? You got it now?" My adrenaline was still sky high, "I AM THE GREATEST! DON'T FUCK AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO THE GREATEST!" I let go of him and jumped up, he jumped up right after me, but put his guard down and stopped jumping in place.

"THIS IS IT!" He screamed and flailed his arms about, "I'MMA GET YOU—!"

Jane shouted out, "CAN IT WAIT UNTIL AFTER OUR FRIDAY SHOW?"

Bueno looked at me, swallowed some spit and then shouted, "OKAY! AT SOME POINT AFTER THE FRIDAY SHOW, I'MA BRING YOU DOWN!"

I started to flail my arms around, too. "GOOD! I'MA LOOKIN' FORWARD TO IT, BITCH!"

Half of the group walked away with Bueno, Jane walked away by herself, and the rest of the group walked up to me. Mr. Abar drew in a deep breath while putting his hands behind his head. He looked over at Mr. Bozzi and asked him, "Are you happy with what you've started?"

Mr. Bozzi gulped, "I'm not proud, but at least it'll be good practice for them."

Mr. Abar fought back a laugh and shook his head from left to right. They collected all the training and boxing gear and walked back to Hogwarts castle. Lauren ran up to me and shouted, "You did amazing!"

I shook my head left to right, put my hands on the back of my neck and drew in a few deep breaths. I started to walk backwards so that I could look at the half of the group that stayed with me, "What happened? That wasn't Bueno; that wasn't good, and that wasn't my best friend."

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**A/N: Please review! I appreciate every review!**

**A/N: "Wingleworms" doesn't hold any significance, it's just a two AM creation. :)**


	4. My Apology

**Chapter Four: My Apology**

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Bueno has either ignored me all week, or has been awkward when we did talk. I've been trying to make things right, he and Jane are my best friends, and this fight is tearing us apart. It's now Friday, and things haven't really gotten better. Jane has figured out when we can set up, when we should start, and in what dungeon to play in. Tonight's the first Slug Club meeting, so Bueno and I are going to help clean up and put away after the show, instead of helping setting it up. I talked to Slughorn earlier today in class and told him that Bueno and I have plans. He said it was okay to leave the meeting at ten o'clock instead of eleven; I was polite and charming the whole time, so he didn't ask me what our plans were.

When eight o'clock rolled around, I went up to my dorm, put on my leather jacket, put on my white belt with the useable brass knuckles, and fixed my exaggerated pompadour. I put a lot of volume into it, and then made sure it stuck out to just where I wanted it. Once I had that done, I put in some hairspray that Deva lent me – its literally magic strength, which is _very _good – and then moved on to the back of my head. I didn't really like having a ponytail with this look, so I put the ponytail up in a sloppy, but still pretty sweet loop that complimented my pompadour. I sprayed that too, and then I quickly put on some black liquid eyeliner on my top lid and winged it out a bit. I slipped on my Peter Pan shoes, and put on my long, clock necklace. No one ever seems to have the time when I asked, so when I was still in Chicago, I drove to the nearest flea market and bought myself a long, fake gold necklace with a large analog clock on the end. The clock has a thick, gold colored ring around it, and sunbeam like swirls extend off of the ring. The necklace chain is pretty, too. There's the long, main one, and then there are three, gradually shorter chains that also connect to the clock, making it slightly crooked.

I put a guitar pick in my right pants pocket because I know Jane usually forgets to bring one, and then headed out. I told my friends in the common room to go to the dungeon at the end of the hall at ten thirty, and to tell some of the Hogwarts kids that they think would enjoy the show. I still had some time before the Slug Club meeting, so I snuck into the enormous Hogwarts kitchen and grabbed two bananas. When I started to walk down a flight of stairs, I heard a familiar voice shout, "You're on the wrong staircase!"

I turned to see a rather indifferent, but still curious Tom Riddle, and a smirking Abraxas Malfoy. I flashed him a crooked smile and walked back up the three steps I just descended. I walked up to them and looked at Abraxas, "Which is the right one?"

His nostrils flared and his smirked widened, "Take a guess."

I pointed to the one I was just on, "That one."

Tom smirked and Abraxas' widened his eyes for a second, "Why that one? I just told you that it's the wrong one."

"I've been walking down that staircase everyday for five days for potions, I'm rather familiar with my class paths at this point."

Abraxas put his hands in the front pockets of his black slacks, "But I told you it's the wrong one."

"I know," I slid my hands into my jacket pockets and took a step back so that I wouldn't have to hurt my neck to look up at him, "just because you said it was wrong doesn't mean that it actually was."

Abraxas stayed silent for a minute, so Tom asked me, "When did you add the lion to your jacket?" He took a minute to stare at my new patch; it's a large lion that wraps half way around my jacket. It didn't have a lower body, so I carefully (magically) sewed it on so that the mid torso area would be on the end of my back and just below my "Street Dogs" spray paint. The lion has its front paws up like the Gryffindor lion, and has its mouth is open as if it were in mid-roar. The upper body is on my back and extends to the right, the aggressive paws are on my right side, and the head is on the front right of my jacket.

I was surprised that Tom actually has a rather quiet voice. Don't get the wrong idea, it's quiet, but it's not weak. It's quiet, but it still sounds rather demanding and quite powerful. I looked at him, and then looked him over, "I put it on last night."

"Where did you get that, we haven't been to Hogsmeade yet."

I smirked crookedly and rocked onto my toes for a few seconds, "That's no concern of yours."

He looked a little shocked, but the expression didn't last. Abraxas cleared his throat, so I looked back up at him. "I know the school better than you—"

I smirked and started to walk back down the staircase I was originally on; I looked at him over my right shoulder, "And I know myself better than I know you." They started to walk down, too, when I was a third of the way down the stairs. Without looking at them, I said just loud enough for them to hear, "Why are you walking down the wrong staircase?"

As I turned to continue walking down the staircase instead of into a wall, I saw Tom smirk again and Abraxas blush a little bit, "Just making sure you're not going to get lost once you're down there."

"Well," I smiled and refrained from laughing, "Thank you, Mother Teresa."

Tom chuckled, it was quiet, and it was only once, but still, he chuckled. I decided that I didn't like the sound of a somewhat devious chuckle while I'm alone on a dark staircase, so I walked a lot faster until I reached Slughorn's office; it's right next to his classroom. Bueno was already there, so I sat directly across from him and smiled at his outfit; I'm going to make it right tonight. Bueno was wearing somewhat silver, but mostly grey tight jeans, and a dark green plaid shirt. He's also wearing his large, square, thick-rimmed black glasses. He has his hair combed so that his hair is mostly neat, but the left side of his head has a lazily spiked, sort of frayed area; it looks pretty good. To tell you the truth, he looks good, he looks great; it's too bad that these Hogwarts girls don't know he's gay.

Slughorn smiled excitedly at me, "Good evening, Miss Hippogriff."

I blushed a little bit and laughed, "Good evening, Professor."

Tom and Abraxas quietly entered the room and sat down next to Bueno. Abraxas smirked at me while Tom looked over at Slughorn, "Good evening, Professor."

Slughorn smiled, "Good evening, Tom. How are you?"

"I'm well, sir. How are you?"

Tom and Slughorn talked for a minute or so; when Abraxas looked over at Slughorn and joined the conversation, I looked over at Bueno, made eye contact and said, "I'm sorry."

He looked away for a second, but then looked back up at me. He was rather bitter, "For what?"

I drew in a deep breath, "For making you feel so bad; we're on the same level, I'm not," I put air quotes around, "the greatest."

He stayed silent.

"You're just as good as me, I'm not a better boxer than you."

He was still silent.

I drew in another deep breath, "And I'm sorry for all the other things I've made you feel like a loser for; I don't think that you're a loser, at all. I think you're wonderful,"

Abraxas' eyes flickered over to me, then to Bueno, and then back to Slughorn.

"And I think that you deserve all the great things you have; you're a hard worker, and that shows in all the things you do."

We were silent for a minute, but then Bueno drew in a deep breath, "I'm sorry, too."

Abraxas, Tom, and Slughorn looked over at us.

"For what?"

Bueno laughed nervously, "For punching you in the face. I… I don't know why I did that, I just did it."

Slughorn seemed horrified, "You punched her face?"

I quickly looked over at him, "We're boxers."

Slughorn looked confused.

"It's a sport, trust me."

Abraxas explained the sport to him – he was there the day of the fight – and I looked back over at Bueno. I shrugged, "Shall we let the past be the past?"

He smiled, "Yeah."

I smiled. I looked at Abraxas and shivered; he's very cute, and he's very smart, but he doesn't seem like a good person, at all. He was there when Bueno acted so weirdly, and I don't think that was just mere coincidence. I don't know why he'd want Bueno to go crazy on me, but I wouldn't put it above him.

"Hey," Bueno fished around in the breast pocket of his plaid shirt for a few seconds, "this got into my luggage somehow." He pulled out a very small, plastic bag with my rose nose ring.

I jumped up and briskly walked over to him. He put the bag in my hand; I opened it and gently shook my medium sized, rose nose stud out. I smiled widely and looked at Bueno, "Man, I've been searching for this!"

Bueno shrugged, "Sorry that I didn't find it earlier then."

"Thanks for giving it back to me tonight, you know how much I love this thing." I faced away from the group of boys and carefully slid the back of the stud off. Then, I gently slid the ring into the very small pierced hole on the right side of my nose until I felt the rose rest against the top of my nose. What does this rose stud look like? It's a medium sized stud of a beautiful and perfectly detailed red rose with two rose leaves underneath the rose; the green leaves acted as a decoration and as a slight base for the stud. I slid the back of the stud back on, wiggled my nose for a few seconds, and then sat down on the empty chair to Bueno's right.

He looked at me, "Turn so I can see it."

I turned my head so that he can see the right side of my face.

"It looks nice."

I looked into his eyes, "Thanks."

Abraxas and Tom whispered and smirked before Abraxas looked at me, "You're all sorts of exotic, ehy?"

The fact that I was unimpressed show on my face; I pressed my lips together, smirked crookedly, and raised my brows a bit. "You're quite right, I'm not _some_ sorts of exotic, I'm _all_ sorts of exotic."

Abraxas was caught off guard; I forgot that women don't really talk back in this period of time. Not that I really care; my outfits already make me extremely different here; I'm not going to change my personality and attitude to make up for my outfits.

A few boys walked in during our awkward silence. The boys that came in, Olive Hornby, Maj Malfoy, Orion Black, Cygnus Black, Avery Bertram, Abraham Cornfoot, and Biton Cornelius, seated themselves in the empty chairs. The oldest of them, Abraham, a seventh year Ravenclaw, looked at me with curiosity, and then looked over at Slughorn, "Who is she?"

Slughorn smiled over at me and said, "Boys, this is Karma Kinzek. She is here because she has the most powerful patronus I've ever seen."

I lightly blushed when they all looked at me.

Orion sneered at me and asked Slughorn, "May we see it?"

Slughorn smiled excitedly and looked over at me, "May we, Karma?"

I nervously smiled crookedly. "I… I guess so."

Slughorn smiled while about half of the boys sneered.

I slowly got up and checked my acid washed, grey skinny jeans for my wand, but then remembered that I put my wand in my breast pocket. I fished my wand out of my vest like, red and gold, buffalo checkered shirt. I slowly took it out my breast pocket, drew in a deep breath, and turned ninety degrees so that my patronus wouldn't end up running through anyone. I was about to whisper it out, but then I saw a large, fat, hairy spider on the wall that I'm facing and shouted out, "_Expecto Patronum_!_" _My large, silverish-white hippogriff shot out of my wand and charged at the spider. It stood up on its hind legs and smashed the spider with a large talon. It flapped its wings to gain a few feet of air and then ran out of the room through a wall; it was fading and seemed like it wanted a dramatic exit.

I turned to look at Bueno and saw that all the boys, except for Abraxas and Tom, had their mouths agape. I put my wand back in my breast pocket and walked over to Bueno. We slapped our right hands together, slid them out, and then pounded fists. "Aww yeah, son." I smiled proudly, "Did ya see that? It killed a spider for me."

Tom cleared his throat and looked at Slughorn, "Sir,"

Slughorn looked over at him, "Yes, Tom?"

"Are patronus' supposed to do that? I thought their sole purpose was to ward off dementors."

Slughorn leaned forward excitedly while I sat back down, "That's what is so amazing, Tom. Her patronus also shrieks! It literally destroys dementors; it seems that it destroys all threats!"

I smirked proudly, leaned back in my seat and put my arms behind my chair. I looked at Bueno; he did the same thing, only he slid his feet forward a foot and opened his legs to a comfortable distance. The boys looked at me with jealous expressions, none of them could even think about comparing to my patronus. Slughorn and the Hogwarts boys started to talk about their present experiences with their academics, and then of course, about their futures. Bueno and I whispered about the show we were going to play soon and wondered if any Hogwarts kids were going to come to the show. Bueno said that he saw some of the Slytherin kids who pogoed with us on our first night here and told them that they should go. Before I could say anything, Slughorn said, "Karma, what are your plans for your future?"

I immediately looked at him, "Excuse me, sir?"

He smiled politely, "What do you plan to do with your life? I know you and your friends have a love of music."

Abraxas softly chuckled, "And fighting."

I ignored Abraxas and said, "I love to play music, sir, but I think I'm going to go into business."

"Oh?" Slughorn seemed surprised, "Why business?"

I sat back up and slightly shrugged, "I'd love to pursue music, but there's not a very big chance that I'd be able to make a living from it." I swallowed the spit in my mouth, "I also love fashion design, sir, and I'd love to offer the world an alternative clothing style."

Bueno smirked knowingly at me; I do want to go into fashion, but I wasn't about to explain the styles of the future to these guys.

Slughorn sat back up, "I wish you the best of luck for your future business."

I smiled, "Thank you."

Bueno and I sat silently, awkwardly participating when necessary. Ten o'clock couldn't come around fast enough; we practically jumped up from our seat, and politely told everyone goodbye. Once we were out of Slughorn's sight, we quickly power walked for the dungeon down the corridor. When Bueno and I caught a glimpse of each other, we laughed; we looked silly and we knew it.

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**A/N:** **Please review! Reviews make my heart happy.**


	5. Conversation With a Devil

**Chapter Five: Conversation With a Devil**

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**A/N: Please review; I'd like to know what you think so far, and of course, if I'm wasting my energy or not writing for this story.**

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When Bueno and I walked in we immediately look around. Jane, Jeff, Doug, T'uan, and Lazy Legs already have everything set up. Almost all thirty of us that got sucked in are here; the only people who aren't here are Eva, Pandora, Luna, Caroline, and Dave, and of course, Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar. The dungeon was practically filled with a bunch of Hogwarts kids; almost all of the Slytherins that pogoed with us the first night are here, and a lot of other Slytherins and Gryffindors are here. There are a few Ravenclaws, and maybe one or two Hufflepuffs; I know this because they're all still wearing their ties.

I took out the two bananas I took earlier from my breast pocket, handed Bueno one, and then peeled my own. He looked at me curiously, so I told him, "Whenever I have a banana you want some, but I'm hungry and don't feel like sharing, so I just got you one."

He laughed, thanked me, and started to eat his. We slowly walked up to the platform Jane some how got a hold of, threw away our peels in a trashcan behind the platform, and then walked up the few steps on the side so that we'd be on the platform. Jane caught sight of his and jogged over, "Are you guys ready? Everyone got here early, so they want to get going as soon as possible."

Bueno smirked while I said, "Hell yea, I've been lookin' forward to this all week."

"Alright!" Jane shouted and clapped her hands a few times. She walked to the middle front of the platform and clapped a few more times so that she'd have everyone's attention; once everyone was looking, she shouted, "Our lead singers are here! You guys ready?" Everyone clapped and shouted to indicate their approval; Jane looked over at Bueno and I and said, "Bozzi taught us how to use our wands as microphones." We took our wands out and tried the spell a couple of times until our wands acted like microphones. We pointed them at our throats and figured out how loud we need to be while Jane, Jeff, Doug, T'uan, and Lazy Legs grabbed their instruments, well, T'uan sat behind his; he plays the drums for us. T'uan and Lazy Legs aren't into punk rock, or rock in general, so we made a compromise; the show would have just as much hip-hop/rap as it does punk and general rock like music.

Bueno and I stood at the front of the platform, he stood towards the left side, and I stood towards the right side. Tyler Reanna and Fred Wills figured out how to magically work lights, so they slightly dimmed the lights above the crowd, but brightened the lights above us. "Alright, so for those of you who don't know," I smiled at Bueno, "we are Nervous Wreck," I laughed before adding, "our name will make sense once the show's over."

We started the show off with a few mild tempo songs, but once the Hogwarts kids got used to our sound we started to cover songs by The Sex Pistols, The Misfits, the _old_, still dope, AFI, The Vermin, Joan Jett, River City High, Hole, Garbage, Motley Crue, Poison, The Get Up Kids, Tiger Army, Rancid, The Murder City Devils/The Hookers, The Ramones, Bad Religion, Leftover Crack, Mazzy Star, Muderdolls, Flogging Molly, Porcelain and the Tramps, Screeching Weasel, Sonic Youth, Death Cab for Cutie, Saves the Day, and several bands that Jane plays with when we would do shows in Lane's Liquor Store's basement. We had everyone in the crowd pumped; Bueno and I continued to pogo while he shouted out, "You guys ready to hear some original shit by us?"

Everyone screamed, mostly to release some energy, but we took it as a yes. Bueno picked up a guitar while I cleared my throat, drank some water, and then started off our first song. We ended up performing every song off of our demo tape; they loved it. We thrashed around as much as possible up on stage; we didn't want to damage any of our instruments. The kids in the crowd pogoed, thrashed themselves around, and moshed; they did whatever the sound of our songs called for. Our friends sang along since they are already familiar with the songs, but the Hogwarts kids only sang along with the chorus' of songs.

Twelve thirty in the AM came around much too fast; it was a good thing no one was ready to leave yet anyway. I was about to start singing another song, but then T'uan stopped playing the drums and shouted, "Aye! It's time for a change up!"

Bueno and I nodded; I looked at the crowd and said, "T'uan and Lazy Legs here are gonna take over for a while."

They weren't sure if that was a good thing or not.

I smiled, "They gon introduce you to some snazzy shit,"

Bueno and Jane laughed at me.

"Where we come from, hip-hop and rap are popular, so these two are gonna share it with you."

Thanks to Dumbledore and Mr. Bozzi, Bueno and I were able to transfigure the drum set and guitar into the appropriate instruments. Bueno stood behind a set of turntables while I stood behind some sort of equalizer and beat producing system. Jane traded in her guitar for something more useful, but I couldn't really see what she had. I already knew what songs T'uan and Lazy Legs wanted to perform, plus they left us all a list of the songs in the order they were going to perform them; the hardest part of this was the quick minute of figuring out how to use the system in front of me. The Hogwarts kids were shocked, to say the least, but it didn't take them long to start liking the rap we were exposing them to. T'uan and Lazy Legs preformed songs originally by Hollywood Undead, Nas, Xzibit, Dr. Dre, Woodie, AZ, Andre Nickatina, Mac Dre, I.M.P, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Warren G, N.W.A., Biggy Smalls, Ying Yang Twins, Kanye West, – Lazy Legs couldn't stop T'uan in time – 2Pac, Snowgoons, Pacific Division, Lil' Flip, Lil' Wayne, Beastie Boys, and many more. T'uan and Lazy Legs pumped their free hands, their right ones, into the air. The crowd quickly formed their right hands into fists and did the same thing. T'uan and Lazy Legs walked around the stage, every once in a while they did quick dance moves along with the lyrics, causing the crowd to cheer for them.

They saved the songs that needed a female voice for the end of their list, when this time came, I happily traded places with Lazy Legs; I love to be in the front, and he loves to be in the back. When T'uan ran out of songs, he spoke to the crowd for a minute, but they wanted some more. We all smirked to each other and decided to finish up the show with a few rock songs. Once all the instruments were transfigured back, I drank some water and then said, "I'm not going to be able to sleep if we keep playin' ya punk, so…" I smirked back at Jane.

She groaned and shouted at me, "I _hate_ playin' that stupid, wanna be rock shit."

I laughed and looked at our friends in the crowd, "Aye, Kayla,"

Jane groaned and stopped her right foot; since Jeff is playing the bass for us, we're going to have to play some of the music that his girlfriend likes.

Kayla smiled widely up at me.

"When was the last time you listened to All Time Low, Panic at the Disco, or Call the Cops?"

Jane groaned loudly.

"Or Cobra Starship?"

Jane was silent, but still not pleased.

"Or The Maine?"

"Oh come on!" Jane shouted; I could feel her glare.

I smirked, "And we can't forget Fall Out Boy."

Jane screamed and stomped. When I turned around she shouted, "I get it, you hate me. I'm sorry, I don't know for what, but I'm sorry."

I laughed, rolled my eyes, and began to tap my right foot against the platform. Jeff, Lazy Legs, and T'uan eased us into Room 410; Jane groaned, but started to play, too. The crowd seemed to enjoy these songs, too, especially Kayla. We played a few songs by each artist that I named, but when we decided it was time to start calming everyone down, we decided to play "My Moves Are White [White Hot, That Is]" by Cobra Starship. Bueno and I didn't just sing along, but we danced along, too. All our moves were exaggerated and eccentric, but it was fun, and the crowd loved it. At two thirty, maybe two forty, we brought the show to an end and told the kids to keep their ears open for the time and date of our next show. They left rather reluctantly, but they were more than pleased with our performance and hoped that our next show was soon.

Kayla stayed behind to help us clean up; most of the cleaning was done magically, but we had to handle the instruments manually. They were going to wait for me, but I told the group to go and put their instruments away in Bozzi's room without me; I had to take apart the drum set, naturally, I took longer. I lifted them magically, walked out of the dungeon, locked the door, and then started to walk towards the staircase. I quietly hummed to myself; I was walking down a dark corridor in the dungeons of Hogwarts with only a floating drum set and a candle, I think you'd be creeped out, too. My walk up to Bozzi's room was a long, but safe one. I found the place where the drum set was taken from and quickly put it back together; I've had to take apart and set up drum sets many times, I can probably do this while sleeping. I said, "_Lumos_," and waited a second for my wand to give off a medium light before putting out the candle. I quietly left Bozzi's room, locked the door behind me, and turned the corner.

I heard footsteps as I started to walk back to the staircase I used to get here. I gulped and started to walk faster; so did my stalker. I bit the inside of my bottom lip and started to jog to the staircase while thinking, "Why are these corridors so damn long?" Before I could think of anything to humor me, someone wrapped an arm around my waist and placed their right over my mouth to muffle my scream. I started to violently thrash my body against theirs with the hope of being set free, but my captor just squeezed me tighter. I was ready to bite his hand, but then I heard the smooth, powerful, but rather quiet voice of Tom Riddle in my ear, "Calm down."

It wasn't like he said it with kindness, or even the slightest bit of real concern, but I couldn't help but to instantly relax. He slowly withdrew his large right hand from over my mouth, allowing me to draw in a deep breath. He walked a few steps backwards and brought us into an empty classroom. He gently shoved me in, magically lit the candles, and stood in my way of the door. I looked him in his dark brown eyes, "I need to go to my dorm."

He laughed, he actually laughed; I never pictured Tom Riddle laughing at any stage or point in his life. "It's three in the morning, staying up for a few extra minutes isn't going to hurt you."

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and put the majority of my weight on my back leg, my left leg. "I don't care, move out of my way. I'm tired and I want to go to bed."

Tom kept his firm, dominant stance. I slowly looked him over; Jo did her best, but she barely captured his beauty. Not that I'm dawgin' her, don't get the wrong idea. I've always been a huge Harry Potter fan; when I was younger, the Harry Potter series helped me keep my sanity. When I read them I was in the Harry Potter world, not a hectic and dangerous apartment. How funny that I'm actually in the Harry Potter world now; it took all my will power not to laugh.

Tom and I looked each other over at the same time and at the same rate; his dark brown, almost black hair is neatly combed, his brows are the perfect shape, his lashes are dark and long, faming his dark eyes perfectly. His nose is somewhat large, but still perfectly straight, his lips are almost medium sized, but still on the thin side, and a strong, masculine jaw line. His shoulders are broad and look strong, and he's very tall, probably six feet tall, maybe an inch or so more.

His lips curled into a smirk while he slid his hands into the front pockets of his slacks, "You seem to have Malfoy charmed."

My smile was obviously fake, "This can't wait until later?"

Tom said rather harshly, "No."

I drew in a deep breath and tilted my head to the left, "Can you at least get to the point?"

Tom breathed in deeply, but not out of annoyance. His voice was back to the one I've grown used to, "He's quite impressed with you."

"Oh _God_…" I sighed and put my right hand on my forehead; I gave myself a gentle squeeze with my right hand before looking back up into Tom's eyes, "_Please_ tell me that you're not trying to set us up."

Tom laughed, again. "I'm not doing that."

"You're not trying to set us up?"

He smiled crookedly; the left side of his mouth barely twitched, but the right was in full on smile mode, "That's right."

A loud sigh of relief came from me.

"What?" He looked rather curious now, "Are you not interested in him?"

I shrugged, "He's cute, but not my type." I looked up into his eyes, "Not that this subject matters to you. What do you want?"

He smirked, "I think I underestimated you, that's all."

I sighed, "Oh dear God; is _that_ what you're keeping me here for? To tell me nothing?" I didn't wait for his answer, I walked around him, but he slammed the door closed the second I opened it. He looked down at me with serious, stern eyes,

"Monday is the first real potions project, you will be my partner."

I was instantly angry, "I'll do what I want."

Tom smirked again and leaned down a bit, "You sure are feisty for someone so small."

I rolled my eyes and tried to tug the door open, but to no avail. "Su'pose I'm a Chihuahua then."

Tom laughed, _again_. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, or if young Voldemort isn't actually _that_ bad, but I don't really like it. His laugh is like an example of his power: strong, loud, and it makes me want to shrivel to the ground, cling to his legs and say, "Take me home! Take me home!"

Tom smiled crookedly again before saying, "As far as Slughorn's class is concerned, your friends and yourself create an uneven group, a group of seven. Mondays project calls for two people, and only two people, per group. You could partner up with Malfoy," his voice became the tiniest bit more charming, but still demanding, "or you could partner up with me."

"Or," I smiled up at him, "I could partner up with James—"

"And fail," Tom looked, once again, stern. "He's absolutely dreadful in that class, and if you're a part of the Slug Club, you're obviously not one to accept anything but the best, let alone fail at something."

I was silent.

He just looked at me.

I leaned against the door and smirked, "I heard you're persuasive,"

He smiled, it was a small smile, and I knew it was a fake smile.

"So please, do persuade me. I'm perfectly capable of doing the assignment well by myself; it wouldn't be hard to convince James to let me do the work. Why should I partner up with you?"

Tom drew in a deep breath and gently put his right hand on the left side of my face. He slowly slid his hand down my jaw line and cupped my chin in his hand, forcing me to lock gazes with him. With a very smooth, silky voice, he told me, "We should be partners because I want you to be my partner."

I almost fell to the floor right there and then. His voice alone drove me to near orgasm; his gaze _and_ his soft, but powerful physical hold on my face made me gulp, but not out of fear. I couldn't help but wish he wanted me to be more than a potions partner, no, not romantically, no, not for a friendship. I think you know what type of partner that I mean.

I bit the inside of my bottom lip before selling my soul, "Okay then."

He smirked, he knew what I meant, but he wanted to hear it; he gently squeezed my chin and slowly slid his hand back up to the side of my face. He gently pressed his thumb into my cheek and rubbed it back and forth. His eyes softened, but his gaze was still strong, "Partners?"

My breath got stuck in my chest; I could still say no, I still could back out of this; not really, I couldn't say no to this boy, not about something as so simple as potions partners. I drew in a very deep breath before forever losing my soul, "Yes."

He smiled rather deviously and took his hand off of my face. I slowly turned the handle on the door and opened it even slower; we didn't break eye contact until I walked out of the room. I didn't wait for him to leave too; I booked it the second I was fully out of the room. I ran as fast as I could, I ran faster than at boxing practice; what did I just get myself into? Potions partners, that's so innocent, right? But this is Tom Riddle, I don't know if he's already Voldemort, I don't think he is; he doesn't have his grandfathers ring yet. Plus, no one is talking about the Chamber yet, so he's probably not. This is the beginning of his fifth year, doesn't he start his murder spree with Myrtle and then continues it with his father and grandparents during the summer before his sixth year? If we've really been sent back to stop that, shouldn't we have been sent closer to his death date? I guess not, I guess this gives us more time to observe him, understand him, before we do whatever it is we're supposed to do.

But who's supposed to _really_ do this? If it was all one person we wouldn't have been sent here as a group, but I doubt **all** thirty of us are going to save his soul. I mean, maybe we all do, but the _main_ person, who's that? Oh God, is it me? I mean… He has some sort of weird interest in me, enough of one to wait until three in the morning, get me alone, and pull me into a classroom to make sure that I'd be his potions partner on Monday. I guess it is me; I'm the only one he's talked to, and I'm pretty sure that if he did this to any other girl, in my group or a Hogwarts girl, they'd be bragging to _ehv_-err-ree one. And to top it off, I didn't even put up some sort of fight; he made me weak almost immediately. I'm going to have to be better than that; I'm going to have to fully understand him before he fully understands me. I have to, I'm already stuck here, and I'm already damned.

He gave me the look of the Devil, and now that I've been sent to Hell, I have to be stronger than ever before.

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**A/N: Once again, please, please, please review! Especially since it took me like thirteen tries until I spelt "Chihuahua" correctly.**


	6. Break Me Out

**Chapter Six: Break Me Out**

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I did my best to be quiet once I got into my room, but I ended up waking Lauren. She quietly crept into the bathroom while I took a quick shower and groggily yawned, "Are you okay?"

I jumped from shock; I thought I was alone. I finished rinsing my hair before saying, "I'm just tired, and I'm pretty sure I'm going crazy."

She laughed, "Why are you going crazy?"

I chuckled from disbelief, "Are you serious? We're in the HP world, Lauren. A _diary_ sucked us into this place. And I'm _so_ worried about Nalo—"

Lauren said barely above a whisper, "About that,"

I turned off the water and looked at her, well, at the curtain. "…And?"

She tossed my towel over the rail that holds up the shower curtain; I caught it with my left hand. I lazily dried my hair and then dried off my body. I wrapped the towel around my body, stepped out of the shower, and looked her right in the eyes. She drew in a deep breath, "I don't know if it'll work for you, but I've tried it out, and it worked for me."

"What worked?"

"If you close your eyes and concentrate on what you want the most…" She paused for a minute, "Bueno's trunk is enchanted or something and—"

"Are you telling me that you can get things from back home through his trunk?"

She slowly nodded up and down.

"How long have you known this?"

"Since the second day we've been here."

I popped my neck and bit my bottom lip before looking at her again, "Who else has used it?"

"I don't know, like half of us—"

Obviously angry, I told her, "And no one could tell me this?"

Lauren quickly became defensive; "We didn't want to tell you until we were sure it worked. We started off with inanimate objects, but then Harper got his cat so we figured—"

I sighed angrily, "Hand me my clothes, please, they're behind you."

She tossed me my red short shorts and my black sports bra. I dressed in front of her and she either looked away or just at my face; we've had lockers to next each other in the locker room since eighth grade, we've seen each other dress before. She then tossed me my small, rather trashy, tank top. I slipped it on and said, "How do I use it?"

He walked up to me and said with a very calm voice, "You have to be completely relaxed."

I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing.

"Relax as if you're meditating."

It took me a few minutes, but I fully relaxed.

"Only think of Nalo, _only_ Nalo. Concentrate only on Nalo. Not his environment, not his possessions, only on Nalo."

I did so.

She remained quiet. After a while she gently squeezed my shoulders, "Stop."

My eyes fluttered open, "How do I know if it worked?"

She whispered, "You'll feel it."

I gulped, I didn't feel anything; Lauren took her hands off of my shoulders and watched as I quietly put towel up and then got into my bed. It was pretty hot in the room, so I took off my tank top and tossed it onto my trunk. Then, I pulled the thin fabric around the four-poster bed so that I'd be completely closed off from my roommates, and quietly cried into my pillow. I shouldn't have put so much hope into something that sounded pretty iffy. Just as I was about to cry out, I felt a large pang in my chest. I shook for a very small, but powerful second; it was like a second heart was beating in my chest. I shot up and jumped out of my bed, "Lauren!" I hurriedly felt around for my wand, but to no avail. Much louder now, I shouted, "LAUREN! LAUREN! GET UP!"

She didn't question me; she slowly sat up, "What?"

"Where's my wand?"

"Uhm…in the bathroom, still. Why?"

"Get up, I feel it."

"Wha—OH!" She jumped out of her bed, grabbed her wand from the nightstand to her left, and followed me out the door. As soon as I grabbed my wand I shouted, "_Lumos!_" and sprinted out of the dorm room. Lauren sprinted too, but she was about four feet behind me. I smacked into many walls since I was running through the castle barefoot; I didn't even bother to put my shirt back on, so I'm running around in a sports bra and athletic short shorts that show a little bit of my butt. When we finally got to the brick wall entrance of the Slytherin House I tapped my wand on the bricks numerous times in numerous different ways, but to no avail. Lauren tried too, but she couldn't figure out the pattern either. The second heartbeat in my chest was pounding like never before; I could feel Nalo's fear, I could feel how close we are.

I started to pound my fists against the brick wall and shouted, "OPEN UP! OPEN UP! PLEASE! PLEASE OPEN!" Lauren quickly joined me; we pounded our fists and shouted until a very agitated and very tired Slughorn opened the wall up to us. We stumbled forward and he asked us why in the world we were here, but I sprinted away to Bueno's room while Lauren did her best to come up with believable bullshit while on the spot. I slammed open the large, circular wooden door to the boys' dormitories and rushed down the stairs; I didn't know where I was going, so I just followed the sound of Nalo's heartbeat. I slammed open the door to Bueno's room and shook him awake with my right hand while holding my lit wand in my left hand. "Bueno! Bueno! BUENO!"

He pushed me away from him and sat up straight, "What the _fuck_ do you want at this hour?"

I panted out, "Open your trunk."

He rubbed his eyes, "Why?"

"Just open it!" I shouted and walked over to his trunk. His roommates ended up sitting up and staring at us; three of them used their wands to light up the room.

Bueno got up, grabbed his wand, and then walked over to his trunk to see that it was rattling. He looked at me and whispered, "What's in here?"

"I don't know!" I shouted and stomped, "It could be that demon kid from The Grudge here to kill me! I! Don't! Know!"

"Then why am I gonna—?"

"JUST OPEN IT!" I screamed, "OPEN IT! I ASKED FOR NALO! I ASKED FOR NALO! SO OPEN THIS DAMN TRUNK BEFORE I FUCKIN' KILL YOU!"

"OKAY! CALM DOWN!" Bueno shouted at me and quickly opened his trunk; the top immediately popped open. I jumped to the front of the trunk and cried out with happiness; Nalo was trying to crawl out. I grabbed him from under the arms and pulled him out. I held up my ten-year-old brother and then squeezed him to me. A waterfall of tears came from my happy eyes while I spun in a circle.

Nalo panted out, "Karma, you're crushing me."

I laughed and got down on my knees so that I could gently put him down. I held him slightly less tight and looked at his face, "Have you missed me?"

He speedily shook his head up and down for a minute and then said, "I thought you guys were at some camp thing."

I looked at him curiously, "What are you talking about?"

With a quiet and tired voice, he told me, "We all got letters about you guys at some camp for a while, some new school thing—"

I laughed, we've all been worrying about our families and how things are working out back home, and someone, somehow, cleared it all up? I squeezed Nalo to me and asked, "Do you want a piggy back ride?"

He smiled and said, "Yes."

I let go of him, stood up, turned, and then squatted down so that he can climb onto my back. I held onto his legs while he wrapped his arms around my neck and laughed as I jumped up. Bueno and I made eye contact; his bottom jaw was practically on the floor. I looked at him with large, scared eyes, "Have I gone completely crazy? Is he not really here?"

"No, no, no!"

I almost cried; with a cracked voice, I said, "He's not here?"

"He is!" Bueno ran his hands through his hair, "No to you being completely crazy. I'm… I'm just so shocked."

I laughed and said, "Then I'll see you later." I ran out of the room, back up to the Slytherin Common Room, past Lauren and Slughorn, and up and down the corridors of Hogwarts. Nalo laughed happily the whole way; I eventually found Dumbledore's quarters and knocked on his door. He opened it within the moment I knocked; it's five o'clock in the morning now and he's looking over student papers.

He smiled politely and ignored my outfit, "Good morning, Ms. Kinzek, how may I help you."

I smiled widely, "I don't know how, but my little brother is here now—"

Dumbledore chucked and sighed, "There's a large pile of things in my quarters, I figured someone else came, so…" He stood to the side and motioned for me to come in; all of my clothes and all of Nalo's clothes are packed away in boxes in the middle of Dumbledore's room. I squatted down so Nalo could get off of my back and run over to our stuff. Dumbledore gently picked up the sorting hat from his desk and looked over at me.

"Nalo," I whispered, "Nalo Taylor."

Dumbledore gave me a curious look.

"Different fathers."

"Ahh…" he politely nodded his head and then looked over at Nalo, "Nalo, will you please come over here?"

Nalo slowly approached Dumbledore, "Yes, sir?"

I smiled; Nalo remembered the manners I've been teaching him.

Dumbledore smiled, "Are you ready to be sorted?"

Nalo beamed, "Like Harry Potter?"

Dumbledore laughed, "Yes."

Nalo nodded up and down a few times. Once he stopped nodding, Dumbledore gently sat the hat down on Nalo's head; it fell to the bottom of his ears. The hat was silent for a few minutes before calming saying, "Gryffindor, definitely Gryffindor."

Nalo was quiet, but very happy. Dumbledore took the hat off of him and back onto his desk; I squeezed Nalo and said, "I'm in Gryffindor, too."

"That being so," Dumbledore looked at us from his desk, "I'm sure you can escort him back to the Gryffindor Tower." He picked up a quill and a piece of parchment, "I will write to Headmaster Dippet; I'll meet you there with a tailor and room arrangements. I'll have your things sent to your rooms later."

I stood back up and held Nalo's right hand in my left, "Thank you, Professor Dumbledore, for everything." He smiled and watched us walk out of his quarters.

I explained everything to Nalo on the walk up and told him not to tell anyone, no matter what. Even if he thinks it's me talking to him about it; I told him that if we're going to talk it at all, we'll have to use our code phrase casually in conversation before the subject of home and time traveling, the phrase being, "Emo party." When we got up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, I said the password and told Nalo to remember it. He repeated it a few times, but stopped and looked around with wide eyes at the common room. He was quiet while the tailor took his measurements and told me that his uniform and robes will be finished within the next two to three days. I told him thank you while Dumbledore walked up to Nalo and showed him to his new room; I followed them to it. There was an empty bed in a room with several other first years, Kevin Thomas, Christopher Finnegan, John McKinney, and Brandon Banks. All of his clothes magically fit into his dresser; Dumbledore supplied him with a trunk and a messenger bag filled with all the books and other things he'll need for the school year. I smiled, yawned, and hugged Nalo. "I need to go sleep, Nalo, I haven't slept in twenty four hours."

He hugged me and said okay. Before I left for my own dorm, I saw that he was quickly making friends with the boys in the dorm. I instantly felt less stressed; I love that Nalo is here with me now, but I'm also very scared. How am I supposed to protect him from a world I don't understand? Not even the world, but that damn Tom Riddle! I don't know if I'll even be able to protect myself against Tom; when it comes to Nalo, I'll always be able to make the right choice for him, but right now, I'm at a total loss.

I easily fell asleep once I crawled into my bed. I didn't wake up again until about nine thirty; I took a quick shower and took my time with brushing and flossing my teeth, it helps me feel clean. Thanks to Dumbledore, actually, probably the house elves, all of my clothes from home are neatly put away in the dresser next to my bed. I pulled out the top drawer and I put on the first pair of panties and bra I found. I slipped into a comfortable pair of grey sweats, tightened and then tied them, and then decided to wear a purple, long sleeve shirt; it's almost October, but it's ridiculously cold. That being so, I wore the first two socks of equal length I saw and then slipped my feet into my purple Converse. I put my wand behind my right ear like a pencil and then walked out of the room. I saw Nalo and told him that I'm not coming back into the House for a few hours since there's another Slug Club meeting tonight.

I snuck into the Hogwarts kitchen and asked a house elf to make me a plate to go. He looked confused, so I told him, "I have to go to a Slug Club meeting, but I missed dinner today; will you please put some food on a plate for me, and then wrap that plate up a bit so I can take it to the meeting?"

"Oh," the small creature squeaked, "Please wait here, Miss."

I slipped my hands into my pockets for comfort, "Okay, and thank you." It came back with a plate of food within five minutes, "Here you go, Miss."

I gently took the plate of food out of its hands and said, "Thank you very much."

It smiled and then disappeared. I was going to be scared, but then I remembered that house elves have their own type of magic. I then left the kitchen for the Great Hall, and then for the corridor in front of the doors. I walked to the staircase that goes to the dungeons and saw Abraxas coming from the opposite corridor in my peripheral, but I didn't acknowledge him. He started to walk faster to catch up with me, but I pretended to not notice him until he was walking next to me. He drew in a deep breath before saying, "You walk fast."

I smiled and shrugged, "What can I say? Boxing makes me fast."

He smirked, "I've never heard of a female athlete."

I stopped walking and looked up at him; my head is slightly tilted to the right and my mouth is slightly open. "Say what now?"

He laughed somewhat nervously, "There aren't any female athletes here, at least, not any female Quidditch players."

I slowly started to walk again, but I continued to look up into his grey eyes. I smirked, "I guess I just prefer punches instead of balls."

Abraxas laughed and then looked me over without bothering to pretend he wasn't checking me out, "And I guess I just prefer purity."

I laughed very loudly and turned the corner before looking back up at him, "Then you best stop lookin' at me, boy."

He laughed, half out of embarrassment, half from being humored. We walked the rest of the way to Slughorn's office in silence; he walked a couple feet behind me, I could practically feel his eyes burning into my hips. I am short, and I am muscular, but I'm not bulky, I'm just very toned. And I'm still curvaceous, I may not have large curves, but they're not small, either. I rounded the last corner and started to walk down the corridor with Slughorn's office before Abraxas said, "Where were you all day?"

"Sleeping."

He walked up to me again, "Why?"

I didn't bother looking at him, "I was literally up until six in the morning, I was awake for twenty six straight hours."

"Oh… was that you in the dorm this morning?"

I quickly looked up at him, "Yes, do you share a dorm with Bueno?"

"Yeah," his eyes quickly scanned my face, "So does Tom and Jeremy and Corbin."

I raised my right eyebrow to show my confusion, "Who are Jeremy and Corbin?"

"Jeremy Goyle and Corbin Crabbe."

"Oh," I looked in front of me again, "Are those the two trollish like fellows?"

Abraxas laughed and then stood in front of me, forcing me to stop walking. Abraxas slipped his left hand into his front left, pants pocket and casually twirled his wand in his right hand, "Why don't we skip the meeting tonight?"

I breathed in deeply before replying, "If I skip the meeting tonight, that means I skip my chance to eat dinner, so… Perhaps another night."

Abraxas smirked and took a step closer to me, I took a step back while he said, "You can eat at other places than Slughorn's office."

"Yes," I nodded and looked into his eyes; the grey of his iris are the clouds concealing his lust, "but I want to eat in Slughorn's office, so please move out of my way."

Abraxas smirked and said barely above a whisper, "Why should I move?"

Before I could say anything, someone walked up behind me; I was going to scream, but I quickly recognized the silky voice, "Move, Malfoy."

Abraxas looked up at Tom with surprised eyes. He didn't challenge Tom, but he did sneer at him while stepping to the side. Tom stood to my left, physically blocking me from Abraxas. Tom started to walk to Slughorn's office, so I started to walk to; we walked in complete silence for about a minute before I asked him barely above a whisper,

"Why did you just do that?"

Without any expression on his face or in his voice, he replied, "In order to start the assignment on Monday, I will need a partner. I can't have my partner compromised in any way."

I drew in a deep breath and thought to myself, "_Of_ _course_. I can't believe I actually thought that maybe he was just doing the right thing."

The rest of the two-minute walk to Slughorn's office was silent; I occasionally looked up at Tom's gorgeous face, but only for a second or two, I didn't want to be _too_ obvious. I took a seat next to Bueno at the small table, said hello to Slughorn, and then transfigured two of the broken quills on the table into a fork and a knife. I uncovered my plate, drew in a deep breath, and smiled. I took a bite out of the still warm mashed potatoes and smiled goofily. Bueno saw this and laughed; I shot a mean look at him and said with a full mouth, "I'm hungwy."

He laughed loudly, "Hungwy?"

I swallowed half of the potatoes, "Don't inshult me."

Bueno laughed again and saw my black hair band that I forgot to take out after my slumber. To my surprise, and to my relief, my hair wasn't a rat's nest and the hair band did move a little bit, but it is pretty close to where I'd want it. My hair did look rather silly, but it didn't look bad. Bueno smirked and waited for me to take another large bite of mashed potatoes before telling me, "You look ridiculous."

I glared up at him, "YOU wook ridiculews!"

He laughed and leaned back against his chair, "You sound funny when you talk with your mouth full."

I took thirty seconds to chew and swallow the potatoes in my mouth, "I'm going to eat my food and pretend you're not here."

Bueno laughed again and answered Slughorn for me when he asked why I was eating now. Slughorn looked excited when he heard that I spent twenty-six hours awake because of the unexpected arrival of my little brother. Bueno told him that Nalo had to come late because of final exams at his previous school; Slughorn immediately accepted that, which is pretty amazing since he saw me run out of Bueno's room with Nalo. I guess he was too tired to care about what happening. He got up and walked over to his desk, "I am in charge of all the paperwork for the first years."

I finished up the last of the mashed potatoes and started to eat the steamed vegetables.

Slughorn quickly looked through papers before saying, "I don't see a Nalo Kinzek."

I swallowed the little bit of vegetables in my mouth before saying, "His name is Nalo Taylor."

Slughorn looked confused, "Isn't he your little brother though?"

"Yes, sir, but we have different fathers."

Slughorn looked almost disgusted for a second.

"My father died, my mother remarried."

"Ahh," he looked content again, "I'm sorry for your loss, Karma."

I shrugged my shoulders, "I was too young to remember, but thank you anyway, sir."

Bueno smirked at me and rolled his eyes. I whispered barely loud enough for Bueno to hear me, "What was I supposed to say? My mother had unprotected sex the night of her graduation party and then BAM, nine months later she had me?"

Bueno laughed while I continued on eating my food. Slughorn pulled out my brother's file and sat back down at the table. He laid the file down in front of him and opened it; "He's also in Gryffindor…"

I nodded my head up and down.

"Says here that he's a smart boy, almost sorted into Ravenclaw."

I smiled but continued eating.

He read the file for another minute before smiling widely, "It says here that he's very good at the sciences and arithmetic."

I cut a piece of the steak that the house elf packed for me and I smiled rather proudly, "Tutored him myself."

Slughorn got up to put Nalo's file away, "You should be proud, then, Karma. He seems to have a lot of potential."

I smiled and continued eating. The boys chatted away about the first trip to Hogsmeade this year, even though the visiting day is a week form today, they're all still pretty excited to get off campus for a little bit. I finished up all my food, magically cleaned my utensils, and then transfigured them back to broken quills. I mindlessly played with my hair; ever since we got here, my hair became curly, and the color has changed to medium brown with some red undertones. I missed my wavy hair, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't like this new look. It's pretty fun, it's a pain to brush, since you can only brush it when it's wet, but it's fun to play with. I gently pulled my hair over my right shoulder and played with it with my right hand. Bueno nudged me while Slughorn said, "What about you, Karma? Are you excited for the Hogsmeade trip?"

I shrugged, "Not really, to tell you the truth. I'm mostly excited to catch up on my work."

Slughorn seemed shocked, "Are you falling behind in your classes?"

Bueno loudly blew air out of his mouth and chuckled.

I smiled, "No sir, by work I mean sleeping in."

Bueno and I laughed while Slughorn chuckled politely.

When our laughter died down, Abraxas said, "Why don't you give Hogsmeade a try, Karma? I can show you a good time there."

Tom and I drew in a deep breath at the same time; I looked over at Tom and he locked gazes with Abraxas, "She'll be going with me."

I looked curiously at Tom for a second or two, but knew that would blow whatever he was setting up, so I knocked that look off of my face. Abraxas raised his right eyebrow at Tom, "And what will you two be doing?"

"_Our_ plans are none of _your_ concern, Malfoy." Tom then whispered to me, "It's a long project; doesn't end 'til next month."

I silently chuckled, crossed my arms across my chest, and then rolled my eyes; I need to stop being flattered. This is Tom Riddle, he's not Voldemort yet, if he was, Abraxas wouldn't continuously talk back. It's still obvious that Tom is the alpha dog here, no one challenges him, and no one talks back to him. I guess Abraxas is pretty smitten with me, which is weird on several different levels. Kinzek is not a pureblood name, and Malfoy's only go for other purebloods. And I've never met a boy so persistent; sure, I've had relationships, I've had lovers. Don't go thinking that I'm a whore now, I respect myself, but I'm not celibate. I've only had two boyfriends, both of them long term, and I've made love with both – not had sex, made love.

Keep a secret? I've had sex with Doug a few times; we're friends with benefits, but that's on the down low. He's exactly one floor above me, his apartment is empty half the time, he likes me and I like him, and we care deeply for each other, so why not? I mean, sure, there's the argument of it being morally wrong; we're not in a romantic relationship or think about getting married or anything, our love is platonic, but there have been a few times that we went on dates. It's not like we don't feel for each other, there's just no spark. I'm not quite sure how we started having sex, but it was great, so we kept doing it.

Anyway, I don't know how to take any of this. Abraxas is extremely cute and pretty smart, we could have something, but I don't feel good about him. I barely feel good about him on a friend basis, and what's weirder than that is that I actually feel rather safe around Tom. Which is hilarious, right? Future darkest wizard on the planet, and he scares me and makes me feel safe all in the same minute. I wonder if he likes girls with curly hair? I mean, he chose me to be his partner, he literally chose me. I don't think it's too far fetched of an idea that I'm the key kid in Operation Save Tom, or whatever this is. Mission Impossible: Hogwarts, or maybe Riddle Identity. Hahahaha, I'll have to tell those to Bueno once we're alone, or in the company of our friends.

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**A/N: Thanks for the review on chapter five, Cass, I really appreciate it! And thanks EndlesslyForever, for your two reviews, I appreciate them!**

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**A/N: I stayed up pretty late to finish this chapter, so please review!**


	7. Go Go Girl

**Chapter Seven: Go Go Girl**

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Bueno walked me up to the Gryffindor Tower after the meeting ended; I didn't want to be alone with Abraxas, and I didn't want to be a dweeber and tell Tom, "Hey cutie pie, walk me to my room? You know… for _safety_." I woke up the next morning to the sound of Lauren's squealing; she flopped down on my bed and forced me to wake up. I slowly sat up, hunched over a bit and yawned. I rubbed my eyes while asking her, "What's the cause of your excitement?"

She hopped off my bed and tossed a small pile of clothes near my lap. I slowly picked up the item on top and saw a black skirt. "What? Our uniforms?"

"They're fabulous!"

I sighed and looked at the rest of the clothing, "Why are they fabulous? They're regular boarding school uniforms."

Lauren sighed and rolled her eyes, "Yes, but the white shirts are magically solid."

I looked up at her with slight annoyance, "What is that supposed to mean?"

She sighed again, "Even if you walk under a waterfall, your shirt isn't going to show your torso."

"Oh," I frowned approvingly and picked one of my shirts up, "That's cool."

"Yeah," she smiled as if she was suppressing a laugh, "you know… They only gave us skirts."

"What?" I yawned and then realized the severity of her statement, "What!"

She laughed and skipped back to her bed. She started to fold her clothing back up before saying, "You'll have to wear skirts all year."

I jumped out of my bed, tossed on a black wife beater that stopped at my knees over my sports bra and boy shorts, and then asked Lauren, "Can I borrow a pair of your flip flops?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm too lazy to put on socks so that I can wear a pair of my shoes, and you know I don't have any flip flops."

She shrugged, "Sure, they're in my shoe bag."

I smiled crookedly, "You mean your shoe trunk? That thing is huge; you packed half of your closet for a four day trip."

She playfully sneered, "Well it turned out to be quite useful, didn't it?"

I laughed for thirty seconds, "I've got nothin' to say back to that."

She smiled proudly and went back to folding and putting away her clothes. I slipped on a yellow pair of flip-flops, put my hair up into a sloppy bun, and then grabbed my wand from on top of my dresser. I walked down the corridor, down the stairs, and then through the common room. I heard a loud wolf whistle, so I turned my head to the right and saw Doug comfortably seated on a love seat and T'uan in a near by armchair. Doug half smiled, half smirked, and said, "You know you have to wear skirts now."

I playfully sneered, "Don't get too excited, Dougie."

He laughed while I started to walk away, "How could I _not_ be excited, skirts provide easier access." T'uan and Doug laughed, a few other boys snickered, and a few girls blushed. I turned one hundred and eighty degrees and walked backwards to the portrait door. I smirked and said,

"I'll just put a spell on my panties, like the one on the Ravenclaw entrance." He looked slightly confused; I laughed, "You can't get in until you correctly solve the riddle." Doug and I laughed while T'uan sat there slightly confused, but mostly humored; he doesn't know about Doug and me. Doug and I joke around like that all the time, so it's not a huge shocker to hear us speaking sexually.

I quietly walked down to the Slytherin House; I tried to get in by tapping my wand against the bricks, but, not surprisingly, I couldn't figure it out. That being so, I knocked on it for a good five minutes until a very irritated, trollish boy swung it open. He angrily mumbled something, but I didn't pay attention. I walked by him and scanned the common room; Bueno is playing Wizard Chest against Abraxas. I sat down next to Bueno and watched them play; I winked at Abraxas so that he'd be distracted long enough for Bueno to make two moves instead of the allowed one. Bueno didn't win because of this move, he still lost, but he postponed his loss. He sighed loud and long while Abraxas magically fixed all the pieces. I looked at Bueno and said, "You know they only gave us girls skirts."

Bueno was silent for a few seconds, but he did end up laughing at me.

I tilted my head a bit to the right, "Hardy har har."

Bueno smiled.

"I came down here to see if I could have one of your pants."

Bueno pressed his lips together while thinking, "But I'm taller and wider than you."

"I know, but I know how to alter pants. I do make a lot of my own clothes, you know."

Bueno slightly bobbed his head from left to right while thinking it over, "I suppose you could have _one_ pair of my pants. They gave me a few extra, anyway."

I leaned over and hugged him, "Thanks, Bueno."

He got up and slung me over his shoulder in the same five seconds. I screamed from shock and shouted, "What are you doing?"

He laughed and securely held me to him with his right arm. "You walk too slow when you're following me, so I'll just show you the way to my dorm room like this."

I rolled my eyes and stayed silent; there's no arguing with Bueno once he has made up his mind with little things like this. He quickly opened the large door to the boys dormitories, walked down the creepy halls, and finally into his dormitory. He tossed me onto his bed and then walked over to his dresser. He pulled out the second to the top drawer and pulled out a pair of his new Hogwarts slacks. He tossed them onto my lap and said, "The tailors left their sewing stuff here," he pointed to a desk in the corner of the room, "Do you want to try'em on and fix them up now?"

I kicked off Lauren's flip-flops and slowly got off of his bed, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." I pulled up my wife beater to my hips and put my left leg into the pants, and then my right leg. They were about a foot too long, and about eight inches too big on the waist; my waist is twenty-eight inches and Bueno's is thirty-six inches. I cuffed the pants to where I want the leg to end, and then carefully slipped out of the pants. I pulled my wife beater back down and walked over to the sewing machine; it looks a lot like the muggle ones, only it doesn't have any wires. The foot pedal just knows to work with the machine, and you just have to say, "Sewing machine, turn on" for it to turn on. The tailors left their organized box of threads and scissors by the machine, so I cut off almost all of the extra fabric and then hemmed the pant legs. Once I was done with that, I tried them on and widely smiled; I hemmed them at just the right length. I decided to make the pants a bit more snug, so I took the legs in two inches; I tried them on again and found them to fit me nicely, not skinny jean nicely, but just the right way for slacks. I then took the waist in four and a half inches and found that to be a bit big, but I can just wear a belt, so I'm not trippin'.

I sighed, got up, and said, "Sewing machine, turn off." I then carefully picked the pants up, "Thanks Bueno, I really appreciate it."

He smiled and sat further back into his mattress, "You're welcome, I know wearing skirts for five consecutive days would kill you."

I laughed and hugged him, "You know me well, my friend."

He hugged me back, "I'd give you another pair, but you know how fast I spill things on my pants."

"Yeah," I chuckled and pulled away, "You'll need all the pairs of pants you can get it."

Bueno laughed while Abraxas said, "You can have a pair of mine." I looked over my left shoulder to see him leaning against the doorframe, his left hand casually tucked away into his front left pocket, and his right hand mindlessly twirling his wand. He smirked while looking me over.

I smiled halfheartedly, "That's okay, Abr—"

"No, no, no." He walked over to his dresser and took out a pair of pants. He turned back around to face me, "I have plenty of pairs, take one of mine, it's fine."

I slowly and rather cautiously approached him. He held out his pants to me and I gently took them from him, "Thanks." I walked back over to Bueno; he stood in front of me to act as a human wall while I tried on Abraxas' slacks. They're about eight inches too long, and about six inches too large on my waist. I cuffed the pants, took them off, and then quickly fixed them up. I hid behind Bueno, tried them on again, and was happy to find that they fit me perfectly. I walked in front of Bueno and did a slow turn, "Whatchya think?"

He laughed at my statement before replying, "The pants look pretty nice."

"Thanks," I smiled, turned, and made eye contact with Abraxas, "Thanks for the pants."

He smirked, "You're welcome," he quickly eyed me, "They look nice on you."

I smiled weakly, "Thanks."

His smirk widened, "My shirt would probably look good on you, too."

I quickly turned back around and walked over to Lauren's flip-flops, "And that's why dreams are so great."

Bueno laughed while I rushed out of their dorm, through the Slytherin common room, and back to the Gryffindor Tower. I quietly but quickly jogged up the stairs to the girl's dormitories and into my dorm. Lauren looked over at me while I put her flip-flops back in her shoe "bag" and said, "Bueno gave you two pairs of pants?"

"No," I put Bueno's pair away and unbuttoned Abraxas' pair, "Bueno gave me the pair I just put away."

As I slid Abraxas' pair to my ankles, she asked me, "Whose pair were you just wearing?"

I folded them and neatly put them away in the same drawer as Bueno's pants. "Abraxas gave me a pair."

"_Oooo!_"

I laughed, "Calm down."

"But he's _so_ cute!"

She walked over to me and sat on my bed. I leaned against my dresser while she said, "You know, it looks like he's quite smitten with you."

"I know!" I leaned forward a little bit and widened my eyes a lot. I sat down on the top of my dresser and said, "It doesn't make sense! I barely know him. And 'Kinzek' isn't a pureblood name, so he really should not care about me at all."

Lauren lightly nodded, "Yeah, but what's more interesting than that," she made herself more comfortable, "is that Tom keeps cockblocking him."

I chuckled once, "I'm rather flattered, to tell you the truth."

She waved her right hand at nothing specific, "As well you should be! That Tommy Riddle is _ffii-yii -yne!_"

I hunched forward and laughed long and hard. Lauren started to laugh too; we didn't stop until we had tears running down our faces and couldn't breathe. We continued to talk about how ridiculously gorgeous he is for the next hour, then I told her about how he sneaked up on me and talked to me in an empty classroom. She stared at me with wide eyes, her mouth slightly agape, and leaned forward. "You are _so_ lucky."

I laughed somewhat nervously, "Why?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head twice, "I'd **love** for Tom to come up behind me and bring me into an empty and touch my face."

I laughed at her.

She arched her right brow, "What? Are you telling me that during all that you didn't get even _slightly _hot for him?"

"No," I laughed, "I was mostly scared, but hell yea he made me hot."

Now she laughed. I chuckled and then took a shower; when I came out I decided to wear my green, indie fit, jeans, my black and silver, cheetah print flats, and long sleeve, black shirt with buttons from the small swoop neck collar to mid breast. I redid my sloppy, careless bun and ignored the few, small, very curly strands of hair by my ears. I looked out our window; it's raining now, so I put on a rather thin, grey hoodie and then my black leather jacket. The Patil cousins taught me a spell that would protect my patches and other things on my jacket from the weather, so I preformed that spell on my leather jacket and then pocketed my wand in my awesome jean pocket on my right side.

Lauren, Lazy Legs, T'uan, Jeff, Doug and I walked down to the Great Hall for a late breakfast. We found an empty area towards the middle of the Gryffindor table and decided to eat there. We were barely half way through our breakfasts before I saw Karen looking for us. "Aww shit," I mumbled a little too loudly.

Doug made eye contact with me, "What?"

"Karen's comin' over—"

His eyes grew to the size of saucers while he practically slammed his fork down, "We gotta get out of here."

I refrained from laughing, but I still smiled widely, "She'll see us if we leave the hall."

"Damn," he thought to himself for a minute, "lets just go to a different table then."

"Good plan," I nodded in agreement. We quickly got up and rushed over to the Slytherin table. I squeezed in between Tom and Avery Bertram, the Slytherin Head Boy, and Doug squatted behind me. Tom looked at me with curiosity, he was going to question me, but I beat him to it. "Doug and I are hiding from Karen, she's going to look for us at the Gryffindor table first, so we're buying ourselves some time."

Tom looked less curious, but still curious nonetheless, "Where are you going to go to hide?"

Doug drew in a deep breath while I replied, "We're going to go to the Hufflepuff table."

Both Doug and Tom said, "Why?"

I chuckled once and smirked crookedly, "Because Karen's a Hufflepuff."

Doug angrily whispered to me, "That's why we shouldn't go over there!"

I turned a bit to look at Doug, "Karen's not going to look for us at her own table."

A small smirk appeared on Tom's face, "And what if she does?"

Doug laughed and looked up at him, "Do you know Karen, at all?"

I smiled widely while Tom just looked at Doug.

Doug continued, "She's a total idiot; she's not going to think to look at the one place we wouldn't go."

Karen sat down next to Jeff and across from Lazy Legs; I whispered that to Doug and then said, "So she's facing us, which can be good."

He angrily whispered back, "Why is that good?"

"Because we have father to go to get to the Hufflepuff table, leaving this table is going to take a lesser amount of time. So… she'll have less of an opportunity to see us."

"Ahh…" Doug backed up so that I could turn and put my left leg over the bench. Once I had both legs on the other side of the bench, I slid off and squatted down; I looked up at Tom and said,

"I will never forgive you if you tell her our plans."

Tom smirked and Avery laughed; they watched us quietly hop the distance of the Slytherin table, race to the right side of a group of kids that were walking away, and then quietly rushed to the Hufflepuff table. We sat down in the middle of a group of kids that we didn't know; they looked at us curiously, but didn't say anything. They eased back into their own conversations while Doug told me, "Good job."

I laughed, "You too."

He smiled, "I don't see why you weren't in Slytherin with that kind of reasoning in plans."

I laughed again, "I'm not in Slytherin because I'm not a doucher."

He laughed really loud for a second, but quickly quieted himself; we've come too far for Karen to find us now, and like that. He leaned closer to me and smirked, "You seem rather taken with that Tom."

A couple of the kids looked at us from the corners of their eyes. I leaned closer to Doug, "What, are you jealous?"

"No," he chuckled, "I'm curious. At what point did you two become on a talking basis?"

More people looked over at us; I drew in a deep breath and shrugged, "I don't know, the night of our show. I was putting away the drum set and we ended up talking."

Doug arched his right brow, "About?"

I tried to arch my brows individually, "Why can't I do that?"

Doug looked at my poor attempts and laughed, "I don't know."

I quickly became frustrated; "_Everyone_ can do this except for me, that's ridiculous."

Doug laughed at me again, "Whatever, don't get off topic. What did you and Riddle talk about?"

"He told me to be his potions partner."

"What?" Doug chuckled once, "He _told_ you to?"

"Yeah," I nodded my head up and down a few times, "he told me to."

A black haired boy leaned over to see us and looked back and forth at Doug and me. He looked at me and said, "Did you say no?"

I looked at him with an irritated curiosity, "What does it matter?"

He leaned away from me, "Tom Riddle isn't a nice guy—"

Doug laughed and I smiled; we _totally_ didn't know that young Voldemort is a mean guy.

The black haired boy continued, "Weird things happen with him and his friends…"

Doug laughed, "What? Are they all gay together?"

I laughed while the boy locked gazes with Doug, "I don't know. I didn't mean anything like that."

I laughed and said, "Then say what you mean, I'm not patient when it comes to riddles."

Doug couldn't help but to laugh loudly, "No, but you do have patience when it comes to Riddle."

I laughed and then stopped abruptly, "Shut up."

Doug playfully scoffed and rolled his eyes. The boy locked gazes with me again, "Strange, morbid things happen with him and his friends."

I smirked, "What's your name?"

"Adam Abbott."

I leaned closer to him, "Adam, Tom Riddle doesn't have friends."

Adam laughed nervously while everyone within earshot looked over at us, "What do you call them?"

I tilted my head to the left and smirked crookedly, "If anything, they're his fans. He doesn't have friends; he's a loner at heart."

Doug sighed and said, "You already know him pretty well, huh?"

I looked back at him, "No, but I intend to."

Adam started up again, "You shouldn't, you'll probably get hurt!"

I stood up and stretched my arms above my head, "With a face like his?" I snickered, "I couldn't imagine anything less of getting hurt. Besides," I sighed, "I'm rather fond of delinquency."

Doug laughed and rolled his eyes while the rest of them whispered amongst themselves. I casually tucked my hands into my jacket pockets and walked towards the door of the Great Hall. I looked over my right shoulder at Tom and Avery, they looked absolutely devious; I couldn't help myself, I winked when Tom and I made eye contact and then left the Great Hall.

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**A/N: Cass: If I ever met you in real life I'd give you an awkwardly long hug because of your continuous reviews. :D**

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A/N: Please review! Especially if you'd like to answer this: If in the future, you'd like "scenes" ;) between Karma and Doug since I already gave the 411 about them, haha, just say so. Otherwise, I won't bother writing _those _scenes.**


	8. Baby Come On

**Chapter Eight: Baby Come On**

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I walked at my normal pace to the library; I smirked when I heard the familiar tapping of dress shoes behind me. Of course, all the male Hogwarts students own and wear dress shoes, so the corridors were filled with their quiet, almost nonexistent sound, but Tom's has a different sound. They were a little bit louder than the rest, and they didn't have the same sound; the sound is similar, but not quite the same. His is a rhythmic tap against the cold stones floors, while the others sound rather hollow, like a light tap against a wall. I looked at a passing suit of armor and caught a glimpse of a curious Tom walking thirty feet behind me. I drew in a deep, proud breath and changed my course from the library to out of the castle. I paused on the castle steps and preformed a spell on my flats so that they wouldn't get muddy or ruined in a different way, put my hood on, and then started to walk again. My shoe protection made Tom only ten feet behind me; I walked half way to the Quidditch Field in total silence, but I was starting to get rather curious myself. I turned around and walked backwards, we made eye contact for ten seconds before I said, "I'm surprised."

He stopped, so I stopped. He picked an odd looking, but still beautiful red flower, walked over to me and did a motion that could easily be mistaken for a sweet offering. A small smile crept onto his face and he swiftly took his wand out of his right front pocket. He nonverbally transfigured the flower into an umbrella; I watched with quiet awe while the soft, straight, green stem of the flower slowly lengthened into a stiff, green, curved handle of an umbrella. The red and purple petals grew and connected until they became a medium sized umbrella, and the soft center of the flower turned into a hard ball that securely connected all the petals. Tom half smirked, half smiled when I blinked twice to make sure what he did actually just happened. With a voice barely above a sigh, I looked up into his eyes and said, "Thanks."

He watched me slide my hood off with my right hand and asked, "Why are you surprised?"

I smiled crookedly, "I'm surprised that you'd follow me so long without saying anything."

He mimicked my smile and securely held onto the curved handle with his left hand. He held it above both of us and replied, "I'm surprised you winked at me."

I slid my hands back into my pockets, looked in front of me, and started to walk again. Tom matched my pace while I said, "Why are you so confident that I was winking at you?"

"You don't know Avery, and you wouldn't do that to Abraxas."

I smirked and chuckled once, "I guess you really are as clever as they say."

He smirked proudly, but I could tell he was pretending to be modest, "I'm sure most of what you heard has been exaggerated."

I glanced up at him, "Lets hope so."

He stayed silent and walked with me to the Quidditch Field; he waited a minute before asking, "Why are we here?"

"Well," I smirked, "_you're_ here because you followed me."

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, why are _you_ here?"

I rolled onto my tiptoes, stood like that for thirty seconds, and then rolled back onto my heels like I was standing before. "Where do they keep their brooms?"

"Why?"

I used my right hand to put my hood back on and started to walk to the nearest locker room entrance, "Take a wild guess."

He laughed and followed me; "You've never rode a broom?"

"Nope," I laughed in my head, "The price of home schooling."

He half smirked, half smiled and walked up to my left side. He looked down at my left arm and said, "How are you going to learn how to ride a broom with an injured arm?"

I didn't let his comment phase me, "I don't have an injured arm."

He lightly flicked the inside of my left elbow. I clenched my teeth immediately after a small, quiet, but still pain filled sigh rushed out of my mouth. He smirked, "You're right, it's not injured."

My head snapped up to look at him, "How did you know that? I haven't told anyone, I haven't spoken of it at all."

"Not true," his voice was silky, soft, sweet, "You told Nalo."

I stopped walking and turned ninety degrees so that I can face him; he did the same. "You leave my brother alone."

He innocently tilted his head to the left and put a curious and hurt look on his face, "We've only talked once."

I mentally patted myself on the back for telling Nalo not to talk about the real way we came here, or anything about our real lives. "It better stay that way."

The right corner of Tom's lips twitched into a devious smirk, "Why? You don't think," he lightly patted the area of his chest above his heart, "_I_ would hurt him, do you?"

I drew in a deep breath through my nose, tilted my head back a little bit, and replied, "I will not engage in some twisted word game with you, Tom. You leave my brother alone; if I have to tell you twice, I won't be telling you with my words." I turned and continued to walk to the doors of the locker room. Tom magically unlocked it before I could take my wand out; I looked at him over my shoulder, "Surely you know that Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."

Tom quietly laughed and closed the umbrella. After a moment of awkward silence, Tom watched me look for a broom closet and asked, "How did you injure your arm?"

I sighed, "Bozzi was teaching Bueno and I the new strength exercises; he doesn't have a lot of time anymore, so half of the work outs and practices are our responsibility to instruct to the team."

Tom stayed silent.

"I'm no good with barbells, I never hold them completely straight, and the last few exercises were with a barbell. Bueno is pretty much Superman and loaded up his bar to fifty pounds, but my limit is twenty."

Tom was quiet for thirty seconds, "And?"

I sighed for no real reason, "And Bueno told me that barbell exercises don't start to count unless you use at least thirty pounds. I told him to shut up and that he's wrong, but he told me that I'm a weenie, so I used thirty five pounds to shut him up."

"That's how you hurt your arm?"

I shrugged, "The set became more of a get through it thing than anything else; predictably, I had bad form, mostly on my left side, and now I'm paying the price."

Tom walked over to a locker and opened it. I rolled my eyes when I saw that locker opened to a large storage area. I followed him in, walked past a trunk with the Quidditch balls, ignored the uniforms and protective padding, and looked at all the brooms. He took down a sleek, black broom and handed it to me. "Here, Abraxas won't mind."

I laughed, "I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to hear I rode something of his."

Tom laughed and took down a shiny, dark green broom. He looked at me and said, "Padding is for weenies."

I breathed out loudly through my nose, "Hah hah hah."

Tom snickered, "Would you like me to teach you how to ride?"

I smirked, walked out of the storage area and called back at him, "I know how to ride, but I'd like to learn how to use a magical broom."

Tom was quiet for a long minute before he howled with laughter and followed me out. He gently closed the locker door behind him and followed me onto the field. Once on the field, I turned to face him and watched as he walked up to me. He stopped five feet in front of me and put the broom down on his right side; I did the same. He looked into my eyes and said, "You have to be able to call the broom off of the floor and into your hand." We put our hands to the side and above our brooms at the same time; I concentrated on the broom and got it into my hand the first try. I smirked when I realized my broom flew into my hand a second before Tom's broom flew into his. The slightest bit of anger was in his eyes, "Yours is probably heavier."

He snapped, "Don't patronize me, I'm doing you a favor."

A small wave of fear washed over me while his face quickly softened from his previously angry look. I whispered out, "Sorry."

He drew in a deep breath, "It's okay. Now, watch and do as I do."

"Okay." He lifted his right leg and stepped over the broom and sat on it. He was three feet off of the ground and relaxing on the broom within two seconds time. I did the same, but I couldn't get the broom to hover. I hopped to his left and put my hands towards the top of the broom the same way he did. I rose off the ground about two inches but then came back down. I sighed and looked up at him. "How do I…? I don't know, do what you're doing?"

He smirked, "Just concentrate, it's the same concept as lifting it into your hand."

I sighed, closed my eyes, and put all my energy into lifting myself off of the ground. After a few minutes, I could feel myself rising off of the ground; I excitedly opened my eyes just to find Tom's right hand squeezing the area of the broom in between my hands. My excitement immediately left me, especially when I turned my head to the left to see him smirking. Before I could say anything to him, he let go and watched as I slowly descended to three inches off of the ground. I sighed angrily and mumbled out, "This blows."

Tom chuckled and said, "Giving up already, Miss Hippogriff?"

I playfully glared up at him, got off the broom, and gently laid it down. "Come down here, please."

Tom sighed while smirking and lowered himself to just six inches off of the ground. I put my hands on the broom, my left behind his left, and my right behind his right. He looked at me curiously while I straddled the area of the broom in front of him. Since he's much taller than me, he can easily see over me, so sitting in front of him caused him no problems. His cool breath against my neck made me shiver; he breathed into my right ear, "What are you doing?"

I gulped before softly replying, "Learning."

He chuckled and stood up straight; his chest just barely brushed against my back. He adjusted his hands and slowly brought us several hundred feet into the air. I gulped and mindlessly scooted back into him for safety. He chuckled at my fear and slowly flew us to the nearest Quidditch hoops. "Do you know the basics of Quidditch?"

I forced myself to not look down and quietly replied, "Yes."

"Good, then I won't waste our time in the stadium."

"Wha—?"

He quickly flew nose down towards the grass of the Quidditch field; I shrieked and gripped his forearms. He laughed at me and flew us into the locker room, "Grab the umbrella."

My breathing was fast and labored, so I didn't bother talking, I just grabbed the thing. He slowly flew us out of the locker room and told me, "Open up the umbrella, I don't want to get wet."

I gulped and did so; as we flew past Abraxas' broom I said, "We need to put that away."

Tom rolled his eyes, stopped flying and just had us hovering, and pointed his wand at Abraxas' broom. He preformed a spell so that the broom would fly back into the storage area of the Slytherin locker room. I relaxed as he gradually brought us into a much faster speed. I said just barely over the wind, "Thanks."

He nodded and brought us several hundred feet into the air. I slid my left hand off of his left forearm and onto the wood of the broom while holding the umbrella mainly over him. I held my breath, quickly pulled my hood over my head, and then put my hand back down on the broom. I gulped while he speedily flew us over the Black Lake, but he stopped and had us hover before we got half way past it. "Your anxiety is making it difficult for me to fly us. Let go of the broom."

My whole body stiffened; I looked at him over my right shoulder, "Let _go?_"

"Yes."

"I'll fly off!"

He smirked and rolled his eyes, "Just hold onto something else."

I glared at him for a minute, looked back in front of us, and then gripped his left knee. He tensed for a second, but then quietly laughed. I leaned into him for comfort and drew in a deep breath while he started to fly again. We were silent for a while, mostly because the wind was too loud to talk over, but he eventually brought us to a nice, medium speed. I sighed while he said, "You and your friends are very… odd."

I laughed, "Thank you."

"Where are you from?"

I bit the inside of my left cheek, "The states."

"Which one?"

"Illinois, northeastern Illinois."

Tom quietly thought to himself before saying, "Chicago?"

I nodded rather proudly, "Yea, we be from Chi-City."

He gave me an inquisitive look, "Do they teach you grammar in Chi-City?"

I laughed and looked up at him, "Our schools do, our hoods don't."

"Hoods?"

I gave him an inquisitive look, "Our projects, our ghettos—"

"Oh, where did you get 'hood'?"

"It's a shortening of 'neighborhood'."

"Oh."

I stayed silent, but I could feel Tom's eyes studying my face and then outfit. "You Americans dress rather oddly."

I shrugged, "Not really. If you go you'll see most of us are pretty classy."

Tom smirked crookedly, "And yet you and your friends are not?"

I shrugged again, "We clean up nicely; besides, the hood and classy aren't synonymous."

Tom laughed and flew in circles above the Black Lake.

"Where are you from?" I already know, but it seems like I should ask him.

"England."

"Surprising."

I laughed and he just smirked and rolled his eyes, "I live in an orphanage during the summers."

I breathed in deeply, "I'm sorry."

He snapped, "Don't be."

I leaned the slightest bit away from him, "Okay."

He made the broom fly faster, but I'm not scared or anxious anymore. "I've lived there my whole life, it's nothing new."

I quietly sighed, "Just because you've adjusted to living there doesn't mean you like living there."

"I didn't say I like it."

"Then don't beat around the bush, if you hate it, say so."

He sighed angrily, "I hate it, but that's no concern or business of yours."

"Neither is asking my little brother things any business of yours."

He was quiet for thirty seconds; he smirked again, "Touché."

I laughed and then asked him, "So, how do I fly one of these things?"

He leaned forward and just barely rested his chest against my back. "Put your hands on the broom like mine."

I closed the umbrella and tucked it underneath my right arm, and then I did so.

"Don't think," he paused for a second, "at all."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Just feel it; this is flying, not a class, it's just flying."

I drew in a deep breath and squeezed the broom like he was.

He whispered in my left ear, "Don't be scared," and immediately let go of the broom. A short, but loud scream came from me as we quickly descended ten or so feet, but I immediately cleared my mind and just pictured flying, making us hover. Tom laughed at me and slid the umbrella out from under my arm, opened it, and held it above him. I drew in a deep breath and leaned forward from the waist. I stared at the scenery in front of me and started to slowly circle around the Black Lake; I made the mistake of looking down and gulped. His silky, relaxing voice drifted into my ears, "Don't worry, I'm here if you fail."

I laughed, "Thanks."

He grinned, "You're welcome."

My circles gradually became faster; I decided that I am now an expert and made us go much, much faster. Have you ever played Guitar Hero or Rock Band? If you have, have you ever completed the first level, "Easy", and decided that you're awesome at the game and skipped on ahead to "Expert" just to immediately fail miserably? That's the mentality I had with flying. Tom almost grabbed onto the broom, but realized that if he did so he'd probably fling us off of the broom, so he gripped my waist and said, "Slow down."

I was high from the cool air whipping my face and the feeling of empowerment from flying the broom, "Why?"

His grip started to hurt, "You're going dangerously fast."

I laughed, "Don't be a weenie."

He tightened his grip so fast and so hard that I cried out from the pain and immediately slowed down. He stopped hurting me with his grip, but not by much. I angrily flew us to the Quidditch field and landed us by the Slytherin locker room. I slapped his hands off me and slid off the broom once our feet were firmly on the ground. I put my hoodie back up and speedily walked away instead of accompanying him to the storage area to put away the broom. I sprinted away as soon as I was out of the sports ground; I didn't want him to catch up with me, and I didn't want to talk to him.

I rushed into the castle and went directly into the Gryffindor common room. I saw Nalo and didn't give him a chance to protest or deny my hug. "Kar_ma_!" He shouted; he's with his new friends, so I probably just embarrassed him. I let go of him and squatted down,

"Nalo,"

He quietly looked at me.

"Do you remember an older boy talking to you? Tom Riddle?"

"The Slytherin guy?"

"Yes, dark hair, dark eyes, very tall?"

"Yeah," he nodded his head up and down three times.

"Don't talk to him again, okay? He's not actually a nice guy."

"But _you_ talk to him."

I sighed; I've argued with Nalo too many times to think he's just going to listen to me. "That's because I know how to handle someone that manipulative, you don't—"

"But—"

"I don't care," I snapped, but not harshly, "Just listen to me, okay? Be polite, but don't let him talk you into a real conversation, okay?"

He pressed his lips together and squished them to the right after saying, "Okay."

I stood back up, "I'm going to go talk to Lauren, be smart and safe, okay?"

"Okay."

We smiled at each other as I walked away and up the stairs to my shared dorm.

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**A/N: Please review!**

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**A/N: LOLO, you are fantastic. Your review made me very happy. (:**

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**A/N: Cass: I read your review for My Derailment, I'd never ignore a "hardcore fan". :D I'm glad you like my work so much.**


	9. Blown Away

**Chapter Nine: Blown Away**

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I flopped onto my bed and sighed loudly. Lauren looked up from her star chart for Astronomy, "What's wrong with you?"

"I can't remember much from the Harry Potter stories, detail wise."

She put down her star chart, "Me neither, I can hardly remember what we're supposed to do with this damn chart, and we have a class tonight."

I turned my head to the right in order to look at her, "My chart is done and in my bag, if you want to take a look. Try not to just copy me, though."

She smiled, got off of her bed, and then walked over to my book bag, "Did you write any notes on the bag, that'd be the most helpful for me."

"I don't know, I might have."

There was a moment of silence between us before she said, "Yeah, you did." She walked back to her bed and said, "Thanks Karma, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome," I yawned, "Astronomy is really cutting into my sleep schedule."

Lauren groaned, "I _totally_ know what you're talking about. I don't see why we have class on Sunday night."

"Technically, it's Monday morning since class starts at midnight."

Lauren jokingly sneered at me, "Okay, little miss know it all."

I smiled crookedly, "Stop yo hatin'."

She laughed.

I sighed with contentment, "At least we don't have class Friday since it's technically Saturday."

"Yes, that is nice, Lil' Miss Know It All."

I laughed and then sighed, "So I was with Tommy Boy—"

Her eyes widened with excitement and curiosity, she slammed her things down next to her, and then flopped down on my bed by my knees. She sat up and said, "Tell me everything!"

I laughed, "I winked at him right before leaving the Great Hall, he followed me out to the Quidditch Pitch,"

Lauren quickly raised and lowered her brows several times.

I laughed again, "Don't get ahead of me, we didn't do anything like _that_. You know I'd have come in here bragging right away."

Lauren thought about if for a minute and then frowned approvingly, "Very true; please continue with your story."

I chuckled twice before telling her, "He talked to Nalo, I told him to never do that again, then he sort of taught me how to ride a broom – not a dick, don't even bother asking,"

We both laughed hysterically for the next three minutes.

When I caught my breath, I told her, "He snapped at me a few times, and when I didn't slow down like he said to, he gripped my hips _really_ hard. I immediately slowed down and then landed back in the Quidditch Pitch, and then I came up here."

"He gripped your hips?"

"Yeah, I was sitting in front of him." I then stood up, pulled my pants down an inch or so, and then lifted my shirt up enough to look at where he gripped me. Lauren quietly gasped when she saw the already dark bruises on my hips,

"_Jeeezzzus_, what was he trying to do?"

I looked down at them and sighed, "I don't know, be a doucher, I guess."

"And he passed with flying colors."

I laughed and started to put my shirt back down, but then Lauren laughed and said, "I forgot you got that!" She pointed to my tattoo and continued to laugh. I looked down and laughed at my own tattoo. I have medium sized, medium brown and Weasley hair orange cat ears tattooed barely above the top of my vagina; the tips of the ears are about two inches under my belly button, well, that part of my stomach, and I have a matching tail that starts at the very top of my inner thigh and ends about halfway down my thigh; the tail is somewhat wavy, but it has one loop half way down.

"How'd you convince Jane's brother to give you that?"

"Years of wearing him down. Then I told him that in Nevada you can get a tattoo at sixteen."

"Can you really?"

"Yeah."

"Good to know," Lauren laughed, "Doesn't Doug have a tattoo, too?"

I howled with laughter, sat down on Lauren's bed, and laughed until I cried and couldn't breathe. Once I could breathe, I told her, "I don't know how I convinced him to get one, but he did."

She looked confused, "So he has one?"

"And it's hilarious!"

"What is it?"

Though giggles, I told her, "Elephant ears," I used my hands to almost frame my vagina and said, "Elephant ears, right here."

At first she didn't get it, but after a minute of thinking about what I told her, she howled with laughter. We literally rolled around, cried, and gasped for breath because of the intensity of our laughter.

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I woke up Lauren at eleven fifteen PM so that she'd be ready in time for our astronomy class. She was immediately upset with me; she mumbled, "You asshat."

I quietly laughed with confusion while slipping into a pair of grey indie jeans. One of the cool things about Astronomy is that the professor doesn't care for the Hogwarts uniform; as long as we're dressed, he doesn't care. "Why am I an asshat?"

Lauren breathed in deeply to wake herself up, "I was having a wonderful sex dream, and now you've woken me. I hope you're happy with yourself."

I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing and sat down on my bed to put on my white vans; thanks to the Patil cousins, will never, ever, get dirty. I slowly pulled Doug's white T-shirt – yeah, I took it, whateves, he keeps my stuff, too – off of my body and put my bra on. "I really am, I really am."

Lauren rolled her eyes and sat up. She slowly got dressed; she decided to wear her Victoria Secret sweat pants, a pair of slip ons for shoes, a bra, and then a thin, but long sleeved, black shirt. I put on a black, long sleeve, thermal shirt, but it's pretty cold at the Astronomy Tower, so I quietly dug out my warm, soft, white, pull over sweatshirt with a vintage, nineteen forties, Superman on the chest; it was a sa-_weet_ deal at a thrift store back in Chi-Town. Lauren and I put on our Gryffindor beanies, – she put it on to accommodate her hair, I lazily twisted my hair onto the top of my head and slid the beanie over it – slung our messenger bags over our preferred shoulders, and quietly left our dorm. We didn't really talk on our walk to the Astronomy Tower, we were pretty sleepy, and didn't really have anything to talk about.

I sat down at my usual telescope, and she sat down a few telescopes away from me; it's not anything personal, that's just the one she likes best. I took my wand out of my bag, a quill, some ink, and then my star chart. The rest of the class trickled in over the course of ten or fifteen minutes; once everyone was there, Professor Blaine checked our star charts and gave us the credit we deserved. I received full credit, and since Lauren copied a few of my diagrams and used my notes to her benefit, she also received full credit. Professor Blaine is a Satyr; the first night of class, we were slightly shocked, to say the least. Not that we were rude about it or staring at him, but we've never seen a half animal, half human before, much less a half goat, half human. Professor Blaine is pretty chill; he drinks a lot of wine during class, but never gets drunk. He ranted at the beginning of last week, he shouted, "The only bad thing about being a Satyr is that it takes ya fifteen bottles o' wine 'fore ya get _buzzed_. It's bullshit, it's bullshit I say!" It was pretty much hilarious to the max. Blaine also doesn't care if my friends and I get vulgar, even if we're speaking in a manner that would be unacceptable back in our own place and time. He usually thinks the things we say are funny, and unless we're going to have a physical fight, he lets everything slide.

Three times a week, the first day of class, the third day of class, and the second to last day of class, we get lectures. The first lecture is short and he's just telling us what we're going to do for the week. He goes over new (to class) constellations, tells us stories about the stars/"mythology", or speaks about planets and other things in the cosmos and further into the universe. He just finished up his short lecture; tonight, we're getting another star chart. This week he is testing us through our work to see how much we know about Astronomy past stars, so instead of charting stars, we're going to focus on one of three different galaxies: The Triangulum Galaxy, Seyfert's Sextet, or The Andromeda Galaxy. Most people picked Seyfert's Sextet since there are so many different things going on in it, especially since it'll give them the chance to talk about how much they know about astronomical predictions and elliptical galaxies.

However, a few of us chose the Andromeda Galaxy. We recently studied the Andromeda constellation, so we're already somewhat familiar with the area. The telescope to my left, and the telescope to my right were claimed in almost the same minute, but I only paid attention to the one to my left. "'Sup, Doug?"

He yawned and adjusted his telescope so he could clearly see the first part of the Seyfert galaxy he was ready to chart. "I'm tired."

"You're not the only one."

"You know," he yawned again, "I wouldn't mind if we were here Friday night from eleven to four, just get all of the shit done. We could just postpone our shows to Saturday; notin' would be a big deal."

I couldn't resist yawning, too, "I guess, I just go to bed earlier now to accommodate this class."

"How do you go to bed earlier with all the work we gotta do?"

I shrugged, "I just spend less time slacking off."

Doug smirked crookedly, "What are you saying, be responsible?"

The person to my left coughed; I didn't look over, I just hoped he or she covered their mouth. I smirked back at Doug, "Why… I suppose I am."

Doug laughed and then picked up his new chart. He lightly drew an outline of the first part of the Seyfert Sextet. I started to focus on the Andromeda Galaxy and slowly draw its most inner ring and the compact star cluster in the absolute center of the galaxy. I looked through my telescope, down at my diagram, back up through my telescope, and then mentally decided that I did a good job. I was about to start the next area of the galaxy, but a silky, surprisingly kind voice drifted into my right ear. Barely above a whisper, Tom told me, "You missed a star."

I looked to my right and saw him looking down in my lap at my chart. "Where?"

A small, polite smile formed on his face while he pointed to a spot where the star I missed is supposed to be, "There."

I looked up at the galaxy through the telescope and saw that he's right; I quietly sighed and drew in the star. He smirked and said, "It's okay, I didn't see it at first, either."

I smirked and tilted my head to the right so that I can make eye contact with him, "Don't patronize me, I'm doing you a favor."

His smirk grew into something close to a smile, "And how are _you_ doing _me_ a favor?"

I drew in a silent, deep breath before replying barely above a whisper, "I'm not getting revenge for my new bruises."

He looked slightly curious, "What new bruises?"

I gave him the "I know you're not that dim, so stop trippin'" look and slowly pulled my shirt and sweater up a few inches; my indie jeans are slightly baggy, so I didn't have to adjust them. Tom's eye flashed from my eyes, to my right hip, back up to my eyes, and then he stared down at my right hip. He drank in the sight of his hand shaped bruise on my hip without an expression. After a minute or so, he looked back up into my eyes, so I put my shirt down. "I have two, the other is on my left hip, and it's quite complimentary to the one I just showed you."

Tom quietly chuckled several times, "Next time listen to me the first time."

I leaned away from him and towards Doug and gave him a look nothing less of offended, "You ain't mah bayb-aye sitta."

Doug immediately recognized my statement as a quote from a Cyanide and Happiness animated short, leaned forward and looked at us, "Yeah, she'll go to tha liquor store down tha street."

Lauren, Jane, and Jeff overheard this and started to laugh. Lauren looked over at me and said, "Why are we being so quiet and boring tonight?"

I yawned, "Because we're tired."

Lauren nodded to show that she agrees, but she didn't say anything. We quietly spoke amongst ourselves, but we were all pretty focused on our charts. Tom lightly coughed a few more times over a ten-minute span; when he coughed loudly, I looked up and asked him barely above a whisper, "Are you sick, or do you just want my attention?"

Tom smirked crookedly, "A bit of both."

I smiled politely and looked back down at my chart, "What do you want?"

"I'm just curious."

"About…?"

"You."

I fought back rolling my eyes, "Anything less vague?"

He laughed, it was only once, and it was quiet, – I almost missed it – but he laughed. "You're very odd, that's all."

I laughed the same way he did, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Malfoy says you're exotic; he wants to get to know you."

I laughed again, but this time it was audible. I put my quill down on my chart and looked at Tom, "I have no desire to get to know Abraxas. He's polite and he's generally pleasant, but I don't want much to do with him."

Tom just looked at me.

I sighed, "Besides, I'm not a pureblood—"

"What are you talking about?"

I just looked at him.

He gave me a look that told me that I've volunteered myself for mental handicaps while he told me, "Your family history litters the trophy room and the restricted section in the library."

I laughed, "The restricted section? I'm sure we're all proud about that." Tom smiled crookedly and quietly put his things away. Once he was done, he looked up at me with beckoning eyes. "What are you doing?" I whispered, "You haven't finished your chart yet."

Tom whispered back, "We have all week to finish it; come with me, it's important."

I couldn't look away from his dark eyes. They were empty of any evil, apparent or hidden. They were filled with hope, filled with trust, filled with the things that I need. Filled with the things that I value, the things I need to know people still have, that I'm not the only honest, good person left. I gulped and quietly put my things back in my bag. I dried off my quill, closed my small ink jar, and then put them in a side pocket. I closed my bag, slung it over my preferred shoulder, my left one, and tightly held my wand in my right hand. Professor Blaine was involved in a passionate conversation with one of the Hogwarts students, so Tom and I silently jogged to the door of the Astronomy Tower and raced down the staircase; we didn't want anyone seeing us leaving class. I didn't talk to Tom, I just followed him to the trophy room.

He magically lit the room once he closed the door behind him; he was a gentleman and opened the door for me. I quietly gasped at the sight of the colossal room; it seems like Hogwarts has kept up every award since the very first award given. I scanned the room before walking up to where Tom decided to stand. Without looking at me, he asked, "Is this your grandmother?"

I stared up at the small portrait; it matched perfectly with a photo of my great grandmother in her youth in an old photo album my mom has; my mom told me it was a Halloween picture. I tilted my head to the right and laughed at her pose; she was a fun, goofy old lady. In the portrait, she starts off sitting up straight with kind eyes and a polite smile, but she quickly situates herself so that her left shoulder is relaxed behind her, and her hands are pointed like guns, but her left hand is pointed up and her right is pointed towards the ground. Her smile is a mixture of goofy and sleazy, it's crooked, just like mine, and she's jokingly winking with her right eye. Without looking at Tom, I said, "Yes."

He looked at me from the corners of his eyes with curiosity; I started to feel a sharp, needle like pain in the front of my head. I gulped and squeezed my eyes tightly shut, but then I realized what he was trying to do. I emptied my mind completely; I pictured a black darker than inside a cave at midnight. I then imagined a large, thick and tall, brick wall and mumbled, "Stop it."

He spoke so quietly I almost missed it, "Stop what?"

"Your legilimency, your mind reading, or whatever it's called! Stop it!" He didn't respond, and my pain didn't stop. I slammed my left arm out and hit him in the stomach; the surprise and pain of my arm broke his concentration. I glared at him and said, "You have no right, **no** right to enter my mind."

He was slightly shocked, "Karma—"

"No!" I gave him a very serious and angry look, "Who do you think you are? We are peers! Not some, some," I swallowed the spit in my mouth, "You are not above me, you are a prefect, so you may serve me detentions, but you may _**not**_ enter my mind without my permission!"

He looked amused, you know, in a twisted sort of way. "I won't do it again."

I stared at him for thirty seconds before loudly breathing out of my mouth. With a stern, very serious voice, I told him, "Good."

He turned back to the portrait and acted like nothing just happened, "Your grandmother, Jackie, was the last of the Kinzek's to come to Hogwarts." He started to walk to the left; I followed him and looked at the awards on the wall. "Dippet and Slughorn were more than thrilled to hear of your arrival."

I stopped and stared at my great grandmother Jasmine's portrait and array of awards; top Prefect, top Head Girl, DADA awards, most skilled Gryffindor Seeker for her last six years of schooling; there's too many for me to list you. I stared up in awe; my mother never told me about these things. When I was younger, much younger, I used to see her play with a long, thin, smooth stick a lot. She used to keep it at the bottom of her purse, but I never thought much of it. We used to play weird games, she taught me how to make things move without touching them, and when Nalo was about four, she started to teach him, too. Our lessons stopped when she found out about all of Charlie's antics; she became depressed, and then she became a drunk.

When things became terrible in the apartment, I would call our great grandmother Jasmine and she'd immediately picked us up. She always arrived in her car and she always arrived within five minutes, but she lives two hours away. I never questioned it; it was too good of a thing to accidentally get rid of. Our grandmother Jasmine always seemed to know about things before they happened, even little things like the lyrics to songs that I never heard until months, even years later, on the radio. I never questioned her, I never wondered why or how she knew so many things or could do so many things. I didn't want to somehow upset her with my questions and end up losing her. She used to tell me about how she went to a boarding school in Scotland and how she wished I could go there, she said she didn't mind home schooling my mother, or sending her to the local high school, but she hated that my mother refused to go to her, "favorite place", and she hated that my mother wouldn't let Nalo and I go to the "best school possible." Again, I didn't question her; I listened and spoke when needed.

Tom basically showed me my whole family tree, he even told me who married whom, and what each person's specialties were. When we came to the last portrait, one of the oldest in there, he looked down at me and asked, "How do you not know all of this?"

"I… my mother never told me about it." I made up a quick lie, "Her and my grandmother didn't get along, so we moved far away and she never spoke of the family past, just of her and Nalo and me." I looked down at my feet for a minute before looking back up at me, "How do you know all of this?"

Tom gave me a look that showed he wasn't quite buying my story, but he accepted it nonetheless. He completely ignored my question and silently led me out of the room, magically put out the lights, and then led me to the library. We quietly snuck past all the noisy traps the librarian put out and walked into the restricted section. Tom led me to a bookshelf that was towards the back, and then pulled out a very thick book. He pointed the tip of his lit wand at the spine so that I could read the title: A History: Purebloods. He sat down at a near by table and shuffled through the pages while I sat down to his right. After a few minutes of looking through the pages, a small smirk appeared on his face and he pointed his wand at the page so that I could read it:

**The Noble and Courageous Kinzek's**

** The Kinzek family is one of the oldest pureblood wizarding families. The majority of the Kinzek family continues to occupy Lithuania, Belarus, and Romania. Some of the Kinzek's have moved to Russia, many now live in Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Great Britain; few have moved to the United States of America, and to South America. **

** Many centuries ago, when the Kinzek's started to significantly grow in numbers, and begun to travel to different countries, in search for new homes, Alecto Kinzek put a curse upon all of the members of the family. To this very day, Alecto's curse makes it impossible for any member of the Kinzek family to procreate with any person not of pureblood. This being so, Pandora Kinzek was forced to leave her muggle husband for Gordic Gryffindor; their offspring have never been documented.**

I had to stop reading there since my jaw fell to the floor; Tom laughed at me and then quietly said, "You, your brother, your grandmother…"

I looked up at him, but I couldn't close my mouth.

"None of you are in the Kinzek Family Tree this book offers."

I sunk my face into my shoulders and leaned closer to him, "Are you telling me that I'm a decedent of Gordic Gryffindor, _the_ Gordic Gryffindor?"

"I think so," he whispered. "I've been researching your family for the past several days, it makes sense." He paused for a moment, "I couldn't find anything on your Slytherin friends, but I highly doubt they're anything less than halfblooded." He sighed with contentment and purred, "Like I said, it makes sense."

"No, it doesn't."

He tilted his head to the left and raised his right brow.

"Tell me, how do I remind you of Gryffindor?"

Tom drew in a deep breath and leaned closer to me; we ended up barely six inches away from each other. With his silky, relaxed, and confident voice, he said, "You're brave."

"Many people are, hence the house."

Tom smirked crookedly, "You've protected Nalo."

I stayed silent.

Tom tapped the side of his head with his right index finger, "He doesn't feel the pain you do."

I shot up from my seat and glared down at him.

"Calm down, Karma." Tom smiled invitingly, almost kindly, "I didn't look very deeply—"

"The fact that you looked _**at all**_—"

Tom stood up and closed the book while rushing out, "You're a boxer, you go into the ring knowing you could come out badly injured. You make sure that Nalo is never hit by his father; it's **always** you that takes his abuse. You always save or help your friends whenever they need you, you do the same thing for strangers. You've pulled a man off of the street and onto the sidewalk split seconds before a bus drove by—"

I harshly snapped, "Listing my good deeds won't make me get past this, Tom."

He stayed silent, but he never looked away from my eyes.

"You have no right to look through my brothers mind, you shouldn't even _talk_ to him. And you definitely don't have the right to go through my mind," I pointed at the book, "or look up _my_ business. What about you, Tommy Boy?" I spat, "What about you? I know nothing about you. Why don't you tell me some truth about yourself, eh?"

Tom smirked, walked around me, and put the book away. I angrily sighed and slung my messenger bag securely over my left shoulder. I didn't look at him as I left the restricted section; he followed me out, I could hear his dress shoes tapping ten or so feet behind me, but I didn't care. I stopped walking in front of the stairway that leads to Gryffindor Tower; I stared him down until he looked up and into my eyes. "Don't you tell anyone about your discoveries."

Tom laughed and casually slipped his hands into his front pants pocket, "Why would I ever share something this important?"

I leaned against the railing to my left, "I guess you wouldn't want anyone to steal your glory." I smirked, "Makes sense."

Tom quickly raised and lowered his brows, "If it'd make you feel better, you may research me."

I snapped at him, "I _may?_ _May?_ I don't need your permission to do **anything**." I slammed my right hand against my outer right thigh, "Especially if I'm going to do the same shenanigans you're doing!"

Tom smirked, "Anything? You'd need my permission if you were to—"

"I don't give a flying fuck!"

Tom looked very shocked; I forgot people don't speak like this yet. Whatever. "I will do as I please when I please!"

Tom drew in a deep breath, but he didn't respond to any of the things I just said.

I angrily breathed out of my mouth; "Potions will be fun today."

Tom's facial expression went from being calm, relaxed, and even a bit innocent to extremely humored. He smiled widely and laughed, "It will be."

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**A/N: Please review!**

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**A/N: LOLO, you are still fantastic. Your newest review has also made me very happy.**

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**A/N: alieboo, thank you for your nice review. I'm glad you're liking my story so far, hopefully this chapter didn't disappoint ya. :)**


	10. Something I Can't Define

**Chapter Ten: Something I Can't Define**

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I came into potions class barely before class started; I didn't want to spend extra time with Tom. If I have any extra time with him I'm sure that I'll allow his silky voice and his angelic face to persuade me into anything, and since I'm here to… I guess to save him, I think it'd be best if he doesn't persuade me. I quietly situated myself to Tom's left and occasionally glanced at him; sometimes we glanced at each other at the same time, and those times were rather awkward. I quietly took notes on what Slughorn told us and did my best to give him all my attention, but I sometimes stared in awe at Tom's perfect handwriting. When Slughorn was done, Tom magically cleaned his quill and then put away his ink; I did the same. Without looking at me, Tom said, "Gather the ingredients."

I silently sighed and got up, but I was apparently too slow since half the class is in front of me. Jane and Bueno were arguing over one raven claw, even though there's about twenty million more to choose from. I crossed my arms against my chest and lightly tapped my right foot against the floor. After two more minutes of waiting, I looked over at Doug and nodded at him. He immediately got up and joined me in line. "So…" he whispered, "What's the plan?"

I whispered back, "I'm going to walk up there and just take that damn claw."

Doug laughed, but no one paid any attention to it. Doug and I quietly walked up to Jane and Bueno; Doug started to talk to them, distracting them just enough to pull the claw out of their hands. I quickly ran to Tom while Jane shouted at me to give her back the claw. I shouted over my shoulder, "Get over it, there are plenty of other claws. Get one and go back to your table. You're takin' up everyone's time." Jane was obviously peeved, but she didn't say anything. She grabbed a different claw and walked back to Lauren while Bueno did the same thing and walked back to his desk with Doug. I put the claw down next to Tom and said, "I'm going to go get the other ingredients."

He looked into my eyes with no expression, "Okay."

"Don't let anyone take this claw, I don't care if Slughorn wants it, it's for our potion."

Tom smirked, "Okay."

I went back to the front of the line and grabbed the necessary amount of the ingredients for our polyjuice potion. I carefully set the ingredients down on Tom's and my table, and then I stood at his left. He quickly looked me over from the corner of his eyes, "I've never seen you in a skirt."

I smiled politely; I didn't want to waste a pair of pants if I'm feeling perfectly fine with a skirt. I put on a long sleeve, white shirt, tucked it into my shirt, slipped into my cheetah high heels – we're supposed to wear some form of heels, but I protest the Hogwarts heels and wore a pair of my own – put on my Gryffindor tie, and put on my Gryffindor robe, but put it on the back of my seat, as if it were a jacket. I'm not a fan of the robes, to tell you the truth, I'm not a fan of any robe; I just don't like the things. "I prefer pants."

"I know that."

I really could not help myself, "What else do you know about me, Tommy?"

"Don't call me Tommy."

My lips slowly curled into a crooked smirk, "'Ight, Tom. What else do you know 'bout me? Besides my whole family history, of course."

Tom chuckled under his breath, "I know you don't have an interest in Abraxas. I know you like to wear tight jeans, I know you like to do weird things with your hair—"

"Everyone knows that about me."

"Except Abraxas."

I laughed and took my turn stirring, "Tell me something you know about me that only I know."

"How could I tell you it if only you know?"

I looked up at him with sarcastic amusement, "Hardy har har. Tell me something that isn't well known."

Tom sighed and replied with a very soft, but still powerful voice, "I know you bite your bottom lip when you're thinking."

I looked up to find him mere inches away from me. I stared up into his dark green eyes and quietly gulped. "Anyone could figure that out," I whispered, "what's the one thing I like more than anything else in the world?"

Tom half smiled, half smirked, "I don't know," he sighed confidently, "but I can find out."

I laughed and looked back down at the potion. I carefully dropped in the raven claw and slowly stirred the potion, "I can find out all sorts of things about you, too, Mr. Riddle."

Tom crushed some weird walnut like things over the potion so all the juice can be in the potion. Quietly, he told me, "_All_ sorts of things?"

"Yes," I smiled slightly crookedly, "not _some_ sorts, not _a few_ sorts, **all** sorts of things."

Tom laughed and threw away the shells of the walnut like things. "Do tell what you know at me."

I looked up at his gorgeous profile and his neatly combed dark brown, almost black hair. I whispered, "I know that you're not as kind as you pretend to be."

Tom chuckled under his breath, "Is that so?"

In a quieter voice than I used before, I said, "I know you only found me worth talking to because Abraxas had an interest in me. I know you continue to talk to me because I'm from a powerful pureblood family."

Tom tilted his head back, laughed, and then tilted his head to the left, "I talk to you because you're an equal."

I was shocked. Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort, just referred to me as an equal. He must be trying to charm me or persuade me or something. I decided to test my limits and pretend to joke around, "What?" I lightly laughed and looked up into his eyes, "You the decedent of Salazar Slytherin?"

Tom tensed but quickly relaxed and laughed. He gave me a cocky look before saying, "Why? Are you already looking to procreate?"

I laughed, causing Doug to look over at us. I'm not quite sure what's up with Doug, to tell you the truth. I know he's being a good friend and doing his best to make sure that Voldemort in the making isn't going to hurt me, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say he's jealous. Doug and I are very close friends, we're so close we have sex, but we're not romantic lovers. We just can't seem to feel that way, there's not spark for us. And yet, we still get jealous; I'll be honest, it bothers me a bit when other girls talk to him, and I can see that it bothers him when other boys talk to me. I suppose we're both guilty of not wanting to be romantically involved with each other, but not wanting the other to be romantically involved with anyone else.

Tom looked over at Doug and then down at me, "Are you two going steady?"

I laughed, "No, we're pretty close friends though."

Tom raised his right brow inquisitively, "He keeps looking over here."

"He doesn't trust you."

Tom laughed, "I'm flattered."

I sat down in my chair since we have to wait half an hour now before we can add anything else. Tom sat down, too, and shamelessly stared at me, but it was a curious stare, as if he were hoping all my secrets would slide out of my pores. I started to play with my curly hair; without looking at Tom, I said, "Lets play a game."

"A game?"

"A game."

Tom leaned against the back of his chair, stretched his legs out, and crossed his arms comfortably on his stomach. "Like what?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know. A question game, sort of like Truth or Dare, but without the dare."

Tom chuckled under his breath, "Okay. You go first so I can have an example."

I laughed and looked up at him; his facial expression was soft, almost happy. "What's your favorite thing to do when you're alone?"

He thought for thirty seconds, "Relax." He was quiet for a few seconds, "I like to just relax and be able to think without interruption."

I smiled at him to give him comfort and encouragement; I didn't want him to think that I think he's weird.

He smiled, it was a small smile, but it was still a smile. "And you? What's your favorite thing to do when you're alone?"

Without skipping a beat, I answered, "Masturbate."

Tom's eyes grew, he stiffened from shock, and then he laughed. He tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and laughed for a good minute. A lot of people looked over at us, but no one said anything. Once Tom stopped laughing, he turned his head to look at me and said, "Really?"

I shrugged and continued to play with my hair. I blushed ever so lightly and replied, "What can I say? I don't like to wait for others, once I'm done, I wanna be done, and I wanna be able to sleep. I hate having to go through the," I used air quotes, "_that was fun_, or the _was that okay?_ And especially not the, _was it good for you? Did I last long enough? Did you actually orgasm?_"

Tom laughed again. I'm glad he's amused and not looking at me like I'm a slut.

I fought back a laugh, "What's something you dread doing?"

He stopped laughing, but his wide smile was stuck on his face. "I dread going to the orphanage. I hate the kids there. What about you?"

I sighed and relaxed into my chair, "I hate camping."

"What's wrong with camping?"

I gave him a confused look, "Have you ever been camping?"

"Several times."

I did a motorboat sound with my lips before saying, "I just don't see the point, or the fun in saving up money to pretend to be poor. I'm already poor, why would I want to live my worst nightmare? Sleepin' outside, where it's cold and there's a _**lotta**_ bugs and shit I don' wanna deal with."

Tom fought back a laugh, "Close the tent if bugs bother you."

"EUGH."

"Eugh?"

I glared at him for a few seconds, "It's an exaggerated noise of frustration."

Tom rolled his eyes, "I know."

I sighed, "I don't like having to take a three mile walk in the pitch black to find a bathroom when I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't like not being able to take a shower, and I _**hate**_ spiders. You don't even know, Tom, I hate spiders SO MUCH. I can deal with snakes, Tom, I don't mind snakes. Spiders on the other hand, AGH. I HATE spiders."

Tom smiled and softly laughed, "Okay, okay. I see you hate camping."

"Good," I breathed out through my mouth, "Why does Abraxas like me so much?"

Tom shrugged, "He's never met a girl like you, and you're from one of the purest families. I think he thinks you're playing hard to get."

"Oh God," I sighed, "I hope you're not encouraging that idea."

Tom smirked, "I don't like to crush his hope—"

"Oh bullshit." I laughed and playfully shoved Tom, "You just like trouble and pain. I can tell; I'm no fool."

Tom looked hurt, but I could tell he was faking it.

I rolled my eyes, "Your turn. Question please."

"What's your favorite thing to do when you're with your friends?"

I smirked wildly, "Here," I sat up straight and balled up a small piece of parchment we didn't need, "I'll show you." Tom looked at me curiously while I leaned back and threw the piece of parchment; it hit Doug in the back of the head. He slowly turned and glared at me,

"What?"

I started to air guitar and half sang, half shouted, "Give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock and roll! Give me the beat boys!"

Doug laughed while making Bueno participate. Bueno did his best to do the drums against his tabletop while Doug did his best to say the sounds of the notes the guitar would make for this song. Jane looked over at us with wide, excited eyes and sang along with me, "AND I'M FEELIN THE STRAIN, OH AIN'T IT A SHAME!" I started to rock out with my air guitar, "WON'T YOU TAKE ME AWAY?"

Tom looked slightly confused, but he was mostly amused.

I stood up and rocked my way over to Jane, "BEGINNIN' TO THINK THAT I'M WASTIN' TIME! I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE THINGS THAT I DO. THE WORLD OUTSIDE LOOKS SO UNKIND, AND I'M COUTIN' ON YOU, YOU CAN CARRY ME THROUGH!"

Jane and I rocked our way over to Doug and Bueno; the kids in the room looked at us with large, curious eyes, while Slughorn looked rather entertained.

"GIVE US THE BEAT BOYS AND FREE OUR SOULS, WE WANNA GET LOST IN YO' ROCK AND ROLL AND DRIFT AWAY!"

Tom laughed and watched while Jane and I over exaggerated our movements and strumming on our non-existent guitars. Bueno slapped the tabletop as hard as he could without damaging their potion, and Doug danced around while doing his best to say the notes. I walked back over to Tom as we neared the end of the song. I sat back down, closed my eyes, tilted my head back, and pretended to be playing the guitar, making sounds as close to the actual sound as I could.

Tom half smiled, half smirked, "I'm assuming your favorite thing to do is to play music, then?"

I smiled and subconsciously hugged myself and replied, "Yes." Tom sighed and looked at our potion while I asked him, "What's the real reason you talk to me?"

He shrugged lightly, "You interest me."

"How?"

He smirked, "That's two questions."

I sighed, "Fine, ask me something."

After a long moment of silence, his smirk grew and he asked, "Why do you respond?"

"What?"

"I talk to you because you interest me, why do you respond?"

I smirked crookedly at him, "Because you interest me."

"How?"

"That's two questions." He chuckled once under his breath while quickly raising and lowering his brows once. "How do I interest you, Tom?"

He was silent for almost two minutes, "You're very different from everyone here, even from your friends."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That's two questions."

"The questioner is allowed clarification."

"Since when?"

"Since now."

Tom rolled his eyes and laughed, "You're odd; you dress like a feminine man, you talk like a woman, but with a mans vulgarity—"

"Thank you?"

Tom laughed, "You're still very feminine, but you wear pants and weird shirts and you curse like a sailor."

I stayed silent.

"I guess Malfoy said it best."

I glared at him.

He cockily smirked, "You're just exotic."

I rolled my eyes, "I'll take all of that as a compliment."

"Good."

"Ha."

Tom swallowed the spit in his mouth before asking, "How do I interest you?"

I sighed, "You're cute and you're smart."

Tom laughed, "That's it?"

"No."

"What else?"

I smirked and looked up at him, "Don't worry about it."

He snapped back, "I'm not worrying."

"Good—"

"I'm just curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Tom smirked and stood up, "Satisfaction brought him back."

I stood up and started to stir the potion while he added the remaining ingredients. Mixing wise, the potion is done, but we have to monitor the brewing of it for the rest of the month. The groups who have created a successful potion get to use theirs in class, so that should be fun, being in Tom's body for an hour. I may just refrain from peeing so that I can see what's up, or what's down. Wink, wink.

We were quiet for a few minutes, almost awkwardly quiet; Tom broke our silence by asking, "Are you offended by me referring to your style as a feminine man?"

"No," I smiled crookedly at him, "When I hear feminine man, I think of a gay man, and when I think of a gay man, I think of fantastic fashion sense. If anything, I'm flattered."

Tom laughed.

"But," I gulped and he stopped laughing, "I don't like men, so I'm slightly bothered."

Tom looked at me with almost an angry form of inquisitiveness, "Are you a lesbian?"

"NO!" I quickly quieted down, "No. I'm straight, I just don't trust men, that's all."

"Oh," Tom's face went back to being the relaxed empty it usually is.

I smirked, "But you can tell Abraxas I'm a lesbian."

Tom chuckled, "Lying is wrong."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, "Because that's stopped you before, I'm sure."

Tom smirked almost deviously, "Oh it has."

I smiled goofily; Tom laughed while I said, "I have a hard time believing that the," I added fake sympathy to my voice, "oh so brilliant, responsible prefect, and just overall great guy you are," I took the fake sympathy out, "has never cheated or lied or done something else bad."

His voice was kind, but his eyes gave away his anger. "And why is that?"

I drew in a deep breath and stared down into the cauldron, "It's not that honor students don't cheat, it's just that we're much more clever about it." I looked back up at him, "You wouldn't be the only who had a taste of greatness and didn't want to give it up."

He stayed silent.

"Not that I'm encouraging you to do bad things," I laughed nervously, "I'm just saying that once you have a taste of something that's great, you want to keep it, right? Like a piece of cake, if it's fantastic you want more. So you take more, but what happens? You get sick. You get a few consecutive great grades, and then there comes a test where you're totally lost, and then you cheat, which is stupid. The person next to you probably doesn't actually know any more than you do; the only difference between you two is that they're trying, and you've given up on yourself."

Tom stayed silent while staring down at me, but I could tell he was thinking over what I was saying. After a few minutes of awkward, tense silence, he whispered, "Why don't you do _bad things_?" He smirked at the inflection is his voice when he said 'bad things'.

"Because," I sighed and looked into his dark green eyes, "I have something to live for."

"What?"

"What to what?"

Barely above a whisper, he said, "What do you have to live for?"

I gulped but kept looking into his eyes. With a quiet, rather raspy voice, I replied, "The happiness I deserve, the love I'll find some day, the time when my life will be fun, will be satisfying."

"You're living for a someday?"

I smiled and quietly laughed. I decided to be ballsy and gently placed my left hand on his right cheek. I gently gave him a rub of encouragement while whispering, "We're all living for a someday, Tom. The only people who aren't are the people who have reached their someday."

We stood like that for a while, just curious, thinking, and quietly breathing. I slowly started to withdraw my hand, but he put his right hand over my left, forcing me to stay there. I was starting to get scared, not that he was being scary, but it was making me nervous and I didn't know what else to do, "What do you have to live for?"

He sighed, "I don't know yet."

I smiled, it was a weak smile, but it still was full of encouragement and kindness. "There's nothing wrong with that."

His facial expression and his eyes softened. People were staring at us, especially Doug, Jane, Lauren, Bueno, and some blonde haired, Slytherin girl that I don't know. He didn't seem to care, though. He stared down at my face, examining my expression, taking in all the hope, all the encouragement, all the truth I had to offer him. I knew someone would interrupt us, but I didn't realize it'd be in song. Jane started to tap the top of her desk and loudly sang, "My heart stops when you look at me, just one touch, now baby I believe!"

I blushed and Tom stopped adding pressure to my hand, but didn't take it off.

Lauren started to tap the table, too, and sang with Jane, "You and I will be young forever! You make me feel like I'm livin' a teenage dream, the way you turn me on—"

"That's enough!" I laughed and quickly took my hand off of his face. We were both blushing, but his was so light you could miss it, mine, on the other hand, was like a neon sign. Tom quickly put all our things away while I cleaned off the desk. Lauren and Jane smirked, nodded at each other, and goofily danced over to behind me, "Let you put your hands on me! In my skin tight jeans! Be your teenage dream tonight!"

I ignored them, picked up the cauldron, and walked up to the area we're supposed to store our potions. I put the spell on it to continue its brewing while Jane and Lauren sang, "I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece!" I decided the only way to get them to stop was to join them, so I turned around and sang, "I'm complete!" They laughed and followed me back to my desk. Before they could, I turned around and sang with over exaggerated movements and acting, "You make me feel like I'm livin' a teenage dream! The way you turn me on! I can't sleep; lets run away and don't ever look back!"

Jane and Lauren laughed and went back to their desk to attend to their potion while Bueno and Doug whispered back and forth, and Slughorn winked at Tom as if to say, "Good job, young man." I laughed at Slughorn's wink and looked up at Tom, "What a bunch of cockblocks."

Tom laughed and then asked, "What in the world is that?"

I laughed and blushed again, "Are you serious?"

"…Yeah."

"Uhm…" I nervously scratched the back of my neck with my right hand while putting my left hand on my hip. I then said, "If someone's a cockblock, they are blocking the cock."

"Whaa—Oh." Tom smiled awkwardly, "Okay."

I laughed to ease the tension, "So… buncha cockblocks, ehy?"

Tom quietly laughed, "I suppose so."

Tom and I didn't talk for the rest of the period, but we were both thinking about what just happened. We constantly caught one another staring, but it was gradually not becoming awkward. I left as soon as class was over; I don't want to spend extra time with him, not here, not now, not yet.

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**A/N: Please review!**

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**A/N: Special thanks to LOLO and Cass. I WISH I was small. :( I'm tall and I'm fit, but I'm still heavy; muscle weighs more than fat. :P Also, I went and looked up Gryffindor, it is Gordic. But thanks for pointing it out to me, I'd hate to have a mistake like that. I recently realized that I've been spelling apparition wrong in like ALL of my stories, so... I'm pretty embarrassed. haha**

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A/N: So... I read on one site that Olive Hornby is a girl, and on another I read Olive was a guy, so for the sake of my fanfic, Olive is a guy.**


	11. Like a Virgin

**Chapter Eleven: Like a Virgin**

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I didn't talk to Tom after Potions class; we have more classes together, but I sat with either Jane or Doug instead of with Tom. It's not that I didn't want to be around him, but, honestly, I'm afraid. I can't tell his lies from his truths, and until I can tell without doubt, I'm going to remain nervous and scared. He's extremely good looking; I don't even know how to start explaining how attracted to him I am. I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about his features, but I could never capture how truly handsome he is. I don't blame Merope for hoodwinking Tom Riddle Senior, especially if Tom is his carbon copy, even more so if Tom is the ugly version of Tom Senior.

The only times I talked with Tom has been strictly in Potions class, and our conversations haven't been as deep or as humorous as Monday's. It's Friday evening now, and about ten or so of us are just chillin' around the Lake. It's a rather chilly day, but we have our hoodies and whatnot on, so we're not bothered. Besides, we're from ChiCity, we know what cold is. Some of us are seated on large rocks while the rest have situated themselves on the cold, but dry grass. I'm sitting down on a rock; Lauren is sitting down on the grass to my right, to he right is Karen, and to her right is Kayla. Jeff is sitting down right next to Kayla, and T'uan is sitting down on across from him. To my left is Jane, she is also sitting down on a rock, and to her left is Bueno, who is also sitting on a rock. Lazy Legs and Doug are to his left, and they're sitting down on the grass. To their left is Karen's friend, Jael, and Lauren's friend, Annie. Directly across from me are Alice, she's a bit of a slut, but she is very fun to hang out with, and her friend, Lilly.

We spent the last hour talking about Hogwarts so far, how we're still shocked, and about what we're supposed to do. I pointed out that it'd only make sense for us to be here for Tom since we weren't only just sucked into this time and place by his diary, but we've been sucked in the same year he opens the Chamber of Secrets. It makes the most sense that we're here to stop him from fully becoming the Dark Lord Voldemort. Doug looked up at me and asked, "How can you be so sure?"

I lightly shrugged, "I'm not sure, but it makes sense to me."

"How?"

I sighed, "Lets think about it. Doesn't he quickly go down hill after the…" A group of Hogwarts students started to walk dangerously close to us, "After the Inner Sanctum of Doom?"

"Wha—?" The group seemed to understand my code word at the same time; they chuckled for a minute before I could continue,

"He opens the Inner Sanctum of Doom, he shows off his big snake," Lauren, Jane, Alice, and Lilly laughed while I smirked, "kills his dad and his grandparents, blames it on his uncle, and then comes into contact with his first whore?"

They all snickered, but erupted with hysterical laughter when Doug looked confused and said, "Didn't that happen on Monday? During Potions?"

"Oh ha, ha, ha!" I glared at him, "You're hilarious!"

Doug smirked; once everyone stopped laughing he told me, "I'm glad we agree on that."

I rolled my eyes, "You're just jealous."

"Psh," he scoffed, "Jealous of what?"

I raised my brows, looked to the right, pressed my lips together, flexed the corners of my lips to give myself a small, odd smile, and tilted my head slightly to the left. "You're jealous that I'm interested in him instead of you."

Doug laughed, "That's obviously it."

I rolled my eyes and then caught sight of Tom about two hundred feet away; he's going back and forth from reading and writing an essay. I smirked, stood up, and said, "Watch and learn, kiddos." No one said anything, they just stared at me while I slipped my hood off of my head, zipped up my brown leather jacket to just under my breasts, and walked over to Tom while absent-mindedly twirling my wand in my right hand. I looked over my shoulder at my friends, smirked, winked, and then focused back on Tom. His body tensed as I stepped on a large, crunchy leaf, but he didn't stop writing or reading. I sat down to his left, brought my knees into my chest, leaned against my upper legs, and loosely wrapped my arms around just below my knees. I looked at him with no facial expression and quietly watched him work on the essay for Divination.

He looked at me a few times, but didn't say anything. I sighed softly and then whispered, "Books can't help you when it comes to the future."

He scoffed.

I rolled my eyes, "At least not when it comes to personal futures."

Tom looked at me with slight annoyance and slight curiosity. He slowly put down his quill and asked me with his silky, sugar sweet voice, "Please do tell me about my future."

I smirked crookedly, his eyes flashed down to my mouth, but quickly back up to my eyes, "To know about your future I have to know about your past."

He smirked, "Have you done your research yet?"

The way he said 'research' made me shiver. He didn't pronounce it like "ree-search," he pronounced it like "reh-search." My crooked smirk widened, "As a matter of fact, I have."

"Oh?" He raised his right brow inquisitively, "And what do you know?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"And why not?"

"Because you'll get all sorts of upset."

He laughed, "Which sorts?"

I chuckled, "The instant angry, and the 'I'm going to be polite to you, but make no mistake, I'm plotting against you' angry."

Tom looked amused, "Just tell me."

I shook my head from left to right, "I'm sorry, Tom, but our project for Potions isn't ready yet, and I can't have my partner compromised in any way."

He rolled his eyes and went back to his work. I silently watched as he continued working on his essay; he occasionally glanced at me, but he didn't say anything. I shamelessly scanned his hair, his face, the way his body is situated, how his right hand held his quill, how he wrote, and how he held down his piece of parchment. I let out a slow and long, but quiet, breath out of my nose and placed my right hand next to his left. He looked at me, but he didn't say anything. I didn't bother to fake a smile or any other small sign of kindness; I just stared down at his hand until he took it off of his parchment. I gently held the parchment down with enough pressure to make sure it wasn't going to move around while he wrote, but lightly enough that I wasn't going to rip it, or even make the slightest mark.

In a very quiet voice, Tom whispered, "What are you doing?"

I looked up into his curious, cold eyes and replied barely above a whisper, "Holding down your parchment."

His voice was still quiet, but it held a significant amount of power, "I'm perfectly capable of holding it down myself."

"At what point did I say you weren't capable?"

"Actions speak louder than words."

"Assumptions aren't facts."

"I'm not assuming."

"So you know exactly why I put my hand down on your parchment? All my reasoning behind it?"

He was quiet. His lips slowly curled into a small smirk, but he didn't say anything.

I looked down at my hand and then back into his eyes, "It's an act of kindness, Tom." I smiled inwardly as I remembered the talk between Morgan Freeman and Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty. "An act of random kindness."

"I don't need—"

"Yes, you really do."

Tom's facial expression changed from amused, to blank, to extremely irritated. "How do you figure?"

"Everyone needs kindness, you're no exception."

He scoffed and rolled his eyes at me, "_I'm_ no exception?"

"Yes," I sighed, "we're all different in the same ways."

Tom laughed, "You're ridiculous."

I smirked to myself, "That's an odd way to pronounce omniscient."

Tom laughed at me again. He stared at me, and for once, it wasn't awkward. Don't get me wrong, it's not awkward, but I'm not comfortable. I'm not quite sure if I'm afraid of Tom, or if I'm afraid that I'll fail. I've begun to accept what hass happened to me, to my friends, to our lives. We're here for a reason; we were sucked into this time and place for a reason. The reason is obviously to save the wizarding world; hundreds of innocent people and creatures were murdered, even more families destroyed, and for what? Because no one showed this boy love? Sure, many girls are more than infatuated with Tom, but they're not really interested in him as much as his physical appearance or his brilliance.

We sat in almost uncomfortable silence before I murmured, "I've done some investigation of my own."

Tom tensed, but if I haven't spent some time with him, I probably wouldn't have noticed. He blinked once before his silky, sweet voice drifted into my ears, "And what do you believe you discovered?"

I sighed, but I didn't break eye contact with him. "A lot of confusion."

Tom's lips curled into the smallest of smiles while he quietly chuckled without actually opening his mouth. It was the type of chuckle that comes out of your nose, when you think something is amusing, but not enough for you to actually laugh.

I took my hand off of his parchment, slowly wrapped my arms underneath my thighs, and loosely held my hands. I rested my head against my legs, inches below my knees, by pressing the left side of my face ever so slightly against my legs. I looked at him and drew in a deep, quiet, breath, "You confuse me beyond belief, Tom-Tom."

He raised his eyebrows, emptied his eyes of any emotion, and ever so slightly flared his nostrils. "I barely like the name once."

"That's a part of life."

"Being called 'Tom-Tom'?"

"No," I laughed and let my smile linger on my face, "dealing with things you don't like."

He sighed, letting some of his aggravation flow out of his system, "I assume you can keep a secret."

"You assume correctly."

He smirked, "What are you doing tonight?"

I didn't blush; I knew he wasn't about to ask me on a date of sorts, "Planning next weeks show."

He was instantly curious, "Show?"

"Doug, Lazy Legs, Jane, T'uan and I get together and play music. Sometimes a few of our other friends join in with our performance. We usually have two or three of our other friends be in charge of lighting and what not."

"A show…" he rolled the concept around in his mind, "For whom?"

"For us, honestly, but we perform for whomever shows ups. Anyway," I sighed, "I can sneak away from the planning." I looked at him with interest.

He smirked again, "Do you know where the Room of Requirement is located?"

I wondered how far he'd go to have me at his meeting, "No."

He sighed softly, "Then meet me on the third floor by the main staircase."

"Would I be correct if I assumed that the main staircase is the giant one that leads to the seventh floor, but not to any tower?"

"You'd be correct."

I bit the inside of my bottom lip before saying, "What time?"

He smirked; an emotion I've never seen before glazed his eyes, "Ten thirty."

I raised my brows with curiosity, "Curfew is at eleven."

He laughed at me, "Because you always follow curfew."

I smiled and blinked; his cold, vindictive eyes locked gazes with my warm, affectionate eyes. "I suppose ten thirty is a safe time for misdoings. You can pretend to be going straight back to your House after you retrieve your forgotten item."

Tom's smirk grew, "Aren't you the clever girl."

I silently sighed and slowly stood up. I gulped, looked down at him, and replied, "More than you know." I didn't wait for his response; I put my hood back on, slid my hands into my jacket pocket, and walked back over to my circle of friends. I'm going to have to tell them that I've just been invited to what I suspect to be one of the earliest Death Eater meetings ever. I'll have to inform them that I'll probably be in great danger, but not to come looking for me. This could very easily be one of the most critical, pre-Voldemort moments, and I can't have anyone's worry ruin it.

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**A/N: Please review!

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**A/N: LOLO: This chapter didn't have humor a lot of humor, but I hope you still liked it. :)**

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**A/N: Cass: Perhaps. :P**

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**A/N: HatOnYourHead: Thank you for such the kind review; I'm flattered and grateful. I couldn't help but to lurk on your profile for a minute since you said that a friend turned you onto my stories, and I saw that you mentioned "freeasair" on your profile. I remember that a user on Quizzila had that name, and I can't believe they're still reading my stories. It's been so many years since I've started writing, about five years. I can't believe someone has liked my writings for so long, and I'd like to thank them for continuing to read my stories, and for bringing new people to my stories.**


	12. The Round and the Square

**Chapter Twelve: The Round and the Square

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I made everyone promise me not to come looking for me or tell anyone where I was going. We all knew that this was much too important to throw away, besides, what could happen to me? If he was older a lot of terrible things could happen, but this is just the beginning of the Death Eaters. I guess he could try to prove himself and kill me or torture me or something like that.

I'm glad I thought about this.

I couldn't resist the urge to look pretty; I know that there is absolutely no element of attraction here; I understand completely that I've been invited for purposes of potential power, but still, this is Tom Riddle. I don't care if you're a lesbian, you're gonna wanna look good for him. Lauren was ecstatic to hear that I wanted her help. On one hand, I wanted to keep my usual look, but I also didn't want to look exactly the same. This being so, she did my make-up in the same fashion, but with flattering colors and not intense. When I put real effort into putting on make-up, it's almost always for shows. I can do my make-up in classy ways, but Lauren is a pro. She made me keep my hair soft and curly, but she did put it up in a bun sort of thing, allowing my hair to be up, but to also be loose. I ended up wearing my bright, blood red heels, my yellow skinny jeans, and a matching blood red, Marilyn Monroe, color block shirt. It didn't matter that she isn't famous yet, or that she's probably just a baby right now, if in existence, because people assumed that I was wearing "just another weird thing." Since it's pretty damn cold here, I slipped on a yellow hoodie and my Street Dogs and Gryffindor Lion leather jacket.

Before I left the dorm room, Lauren made me do two, slow, full turns. She beamed when we made eye contact and said, "You look great."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She smiled warmly, "I don't know why you think you're ugly, you're actually very pretty."

I smiled, "Thanks."

Her smiled widened, "I see you in this and it's like you're sayin', "I may be wearing make up and high heels, but I will kick your ass,' and I really quite like it."

I laughed and hugged her for a few seconds, "Thanks Lauren, I mean it."

She just smiled.

"I have to get going now."

"Of course." As I walked down the stairs and to the portrait, she shouted, "You have to tell me everything once you get back! Wake me if I'm sleeping!"

I laughed, "Okay, I will."

"Good!"

I walked out, slid my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket, and took my time walking to the third floor. I almost got lost, but then a portrait gave me decent directions, so I stayed on track. I arrived a couple of minutes before ten thirty, but Tom was already there. He smirked and watched while I walked to him; I stopped walking about two feet in front of him, "You're early."

"No," his smirk widened, "_you're_ early."

"But you're here before me."

"To help you find the Room of Requirement."

I smirked crookedly and rolled my eyes, "Whatever you say, Tom." I don't want to start off the night with an argument. He stopped leaning against the wall, stood up straight, and then said,

"This way."

I quietly walked to his right and about three inches behind him. He occasionally looked at me in his peripheral, but he didn't speak to me until we reached the fifth floor. We walked about a third of the way down the corridor before he stopped, closed his eyes, and paced in front of the door several times. A large door appeared when he opened his eyes; he looked at me over his shoulder and opened the door, "Ladies first."

I smiled and walked into the room, "Thank you, kind sir."

He quietly laughed and closed the door behind him. The door disappeared once it was completely closed. A small group of boys were comfortably seated at a medium sized, rectangular table and were talking amongst themselves, but immediately stopped when they saw Tom and me. Abraxas smirked and looked at Tom, "Brought a date?"

Tom did not look amused, or anything close to it, but he didn't say anything. Abraxas saw the look on his face and immediately leaned into his chair and away from Tom. He didn't look scared, but he knew that he was testing Tom's limits, something that probably isn't usually tolerated. I looked at Tom, slowly took my hands out of my pockets, and then said barely above a whisper, "Why bother with a rectangular table?"

Tom looked at me and smirked, "Why would I have a circular table?"

I laughed and let my body relax, "We both know you're the only alpha male here, so why have two heads?"

He laughed and roughly grabbed my left hand. Tom speedily walked us to the left side of the table and sat down at the head. He eyed the empty chair to his left and then up at me; I gulped and sat down there. I looked at the boys at the table and saw that most of the boys here are also in the Slug Club, and I couldn't help noticing that I'm the only girl here. Maj and Abraxas Malfoy, and Orion and Cygnus Black are here, along with Avery Bertram and Abraham Cornfoot. A long, rather loud breath eased out of my nostrils while I crossed my right leg over my left knee and absent mindedly twiddled my thumbs in my lap. Tom had a small smirk on his face, "Boys, you all know Karma."

They all looked at me, making me lightly blush.

"And I'm sure you all know about that Kinzek family." Tom looked at me with a shrewd but wicked glint in his eyes, "She's from the undocumented side."

Orion scoffed, "Gryffindor's decedent, huh?"

"Yes," Tom smirked, but he still looked serious. He looked at me with soft, but still cold eyes, "the things that happen in this room, with us," he waved his right hand about to show he meant all of those in the room, "terrible things will happen to you if you tell anyone about any of the things that go on here."

I wiggled my brows at him, "I'm a lot of things, Tom, but I'm not a snitch."

"Good," he laughed and then looked at Orion, "Tell me who the two most powerful founders of Hogwarts, Orion."

Orion shifted in his seat, "Slytherin and Gryffindor."

I interjected, "How do you figure?"

Tom laughed as if I was a four-year-old child asking if brown cows produce chocolate milk, "Karma,"

I looked into his gorgeous green eyes.

"We all know that Hufflepuff House holds little worth," the boys snickered, "and Ravenclaws, although useful and obviously bright, aren't much else. Slytherins and Gryffindors are intelligent," Tom paused; his voice became similar to a seductive hiss, "We're resourceful, and we're ambitious. The list goes on, of course, but I'm sure you understand."

I sighed while he looked back at Orion.

"Now," Tom leaned comfortably back into his chair, "Orion, please do tell me who could be a better addition to our…" He smirked, "To our club."

Orion smirked, too, "I suppose the heir of Slytherin."

Tom chuckled and I looked at him, "No wonder we're so close."

Tom laughed at me, "I'm sure we'll become great friends, Karma, I'm sure of it."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, "Is it safe to assume that you're a parslemouth then?"

Tom smirked again and hissed something at me.

I smirked crookedly and winked at him, "Too bad I'm not wearing pants made out of snakeskin."

Tom chuckled but looked at me with oddly serious eyes, "That'd be terrible."

I laughed, "Why are you looking at me like I don't know what terrible is?"

Tom raised his brows, but I started to talk a few seconds before him.

"I know what terrible is," I leaned a bit closer to him and pointed my right index finger at my heart, "Believe me, I know what terrible is. You're not the only one who's had it rough."

Tom looked intrigued, smirked like that scene in Chamber of Secrets, you know, when Christian Coulson – I should write him a letter once I'm back, telling him how he really captured Tom's attitude – is exposing himself to Harry, and leaned closer to me, "Then tell us how you've suffered."

I leaned away, "Why? My past is no business of yours."

There are no words to describe the overwhelmingly devious and powerful look he gave me.

I gulped, closed my eyes, silently asked the ROR for firewhiskey, and then opened my eyes. There was a large, two-liter bottle of firewhiskey and a large shot glass in front of me. I ignored their stares and magically opened the bottle of firewhiskey. Tom grabbed the shot glass away from me and said, "Tell me how you've suffered."

I smirked at him and took a gulp out of the bottle; he looked at me with wide eyes. I laughed at him, "I told you that I clean up well, not that I'm naturally classy."

"Obviously not."

I playfully wiggled my brows, took another gulp and said, "If _anyone_ in this room repeats anything I say, I will not hesitate to cut of your penis with a toothbrush."

Tom laughed while a few shifted with discomfort.

We were silent for a few minutes while I gulped down some more firewhiskey; Tom and Abraxas stared at me with surprise. I'm a small woman, but I'm not a lightweight. I can drink just as much as Bueno, and he can drink **a lot**. I loudly drew in a deep breath before looking into Tom's curious green eyes, "I live in a dirty, crime filled project is Chicago, Illinois. I am always afraid that serious damage has happened to my car, if anyone stole anything from the car, or just my stuff in the trunk. I worry nonstop about Nalo and his safety. Many of the kids his age in the building don't like him; he's a bright boy, that's why I send him to a private school. The other kids resent him because of that. If I don't keep myself at the top of my class I can easily lose any possible scholarships to any universities of worth, and if I don't stay one of the best at youth boxing, I can easily lose any chance of an athletes scholarship. If I don't stay a useful, hardworking employee, I can easily lose my job. If I lose my job, Nalo and I will easily end up on the streets. My mother was once a wonderful woman, not she's a broken drunk. Nalo's father is a total piece of shit, except, I suppose, for his pureblood." I laughed, who knew purebloods roam the ghetto?

Tom raised a brow as if to challenge me. In a soft, but strong voice, he scoffed at me and said, "That's how you've suffered."

I slammed down the large bottle of firewhiskey and glared at Tom, "If I slip up like a normal teenager, if I give into any desire, my family will live on the street. If I don't continuously think about Nalo he could get hurt in terrible, terrible ways. In the little free time I have, I have to teach him how to fight. Thank God," I drew in a deep breath, "Thank God that my employer is understanding and allows me to finish any homework I have left at my job. I don't have time to do any at home. I have to grocery shop, I have to regular shop, I have to cook dinner for Nalo and me. I have to make all at home meals, and I need to make sure they're pocket friendly and beneficial. I am my mothers support system, and I, not anyone else," I waved my right hand about, "_**I**_ have to protect us. When that piece of shit father of Nalo comes home drunk or angry, _**or both**_, I am the one who has to physically protect everyone." I stood up and took another gulp out of the bottle, "I am the one who has to rush Nalo into the room we have to share, I am the one who has to make sure he locks it and is well hidden in the room. I am the one who has to take Charlie's blows! I am the one who has to take the majority of his abuse!"

Tom leaned away from me, so I put my right foot in front of my left and leaned into him, putting six or seven inches between us. "I am the one who has to physically fight him! I! A five foot four, small woman _**has to**__**fight**_ a six foot two, large, angry man! When my mother ran away for two days and he didn't know she left because he's rarely home, he came home drunk! I am the one who took advantage of the alone time and cleaned the apartment! I am the one who," I dug my nails into the arms of Tom's chair and spat, "I am the one who was raped because I look _so_ much like my mother that it wasn't his fault. I am the one who is apparently at fault because I wore a ten year old pair of punk rock jeans she gave to me, because I ignored his drunken conversation, because," I drew in an angry deep breath before doing my best to mimic his voice, "_I look so much like my mother_." I sat back down in my chair and chugged down some of the firewhiskey.

Tom looked at me with wide, almost apologetic eyes.

"I was fourteen Tom," I fought back tears, "Fourteen. I was still a virgin; I was fourteen. What about you, Tommy Boy? How have you suffered? Because you live in an orphanage? Because the women who take care of you are usually nice?" I used a rather whinny voice to show my lack of sympathy, "Because the other kids there are just _so_ beneath your intelligence and charm? Please do tell me Tom, how, _how_, how! How have you suffered?"

Everyone was silent; a few even were holding their breath.

His eyes narrowed and he hissed, "Your mother stayed."

"What?"

"Your father left you, too, but your mother stayed."

"Oh my God," I laughed and rolled my head back and in a small circle.

"She was a witch!" He shouted and leaned closer to me, "She could have stayed!"

I looked at him with a surprising amount of care and gave him a minute to cool down a bit. I leaned closer to him and whispered, "Your father left her, too."

His jaws clenched together and he ruggedly spat out in a very quiet voice, "How do you know about my past?"

I ignored his question, "Your father deserves your hate, not your mother."

Tom's breathing became significantly louder, "Your mother loved you, Tom. If she didn't love you, if she really didn't love you, she wouldn't have taken you somewhere where you could be taken care of. She'd have given birth to you on some dingy street and would have left you there."

Tom shot up from his seat, "You don't know—!"

I looked up at him with large, caring eyes, "She was weak, Tom, but she loved you."

He yanked me up by my right arm and dug his fingertips into my biceps. With a low, husky voice, he growled at me, "Do you know what happens to those who—"

"I'm not afraid of you."

He smirked with insanity, "Nalo could be."

I brought my knee up too fast for him to react. He gasped in pain and let go of me the second my knee came into contact with his jewels. He leaned against his chair while I said, "Only a coward would hurt the ones other people love. Only a sick, insane, coward would do something so evil." I stood up straight, "I refuse to believe that you're a sick coward, I can believe that you're a tad bit insane, Tommy," I smiled crookedly, "but you're above that, Tom. You really are."

He drew in a deep breath and stood up, "Take out your wand."

I sighed and did so.

Tom took his wand out and said, "Have you dueled before?"

My crooked smirk widened; I walked away from the table and he did the same. We stood about ten feet away from each other, but we were still facing each other. "Don't worry about it."

Tom's brows raised and lowered within a second and his eyes shone with a twisted sense of excitement. "If you think you're so much better than me, then we'll duel it out."

I sighed, "I never said that—"

He snapped at me, "You might as well have."

We maintained eye contact as we bowed to each other and then shot back up. Tom immediately shot a silent curse at me; I moved in the nick of time. I laughed with disbelief and surprise; barely a fifth year and he already has silent spells down. I said a silent prayer and then shot a silent spell back at him. Blue, green, and yellow streaks of light flew out of our wands, but then a shockingly cruel spell came from him. I jumped out of the way and watched as the curse made the grandfather clock behind me explode. Tom laughed with an evil tone before sending it at me again. I rolled out of the way and put all my concentration into Snape's spell, sectumsempra. Everyone was not only surprised that I actually Tom, but that he stumbled over, fell onto his back, and cried out from the physical pain.

I rushed over to Tom to see him cut up all over his body. He silently sobbed, but tried to stop because his tears stung his new wounds. I immediately started to hyperventilate, but composed myself so that I could heal him. I stood up and waved my wand over his limp body in the shape of an eight. His blood slowly went back into his body and his wounds slowly closed up, but he didn't get off of the floor. Tom looked up at me with tired eyes and said barely above a whisper, "You bitch."

I sighed and helped him up. Tom roughly pushed me away from him once he was on his feet. He sat down in his chair, which, oddly enough, looked quite a bit like a throne, and then rested his elbows a few inches above his knees. He leaned over, looked at me, and then spat, "Don't you _ever_ do that to me again."

I gulped and sat down. I turned to the right and leaned over like him so that we'd be looking into each other's eyes. I whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear me, especially Tom, "I am sorry."

He laughed, "No you're not."

I snapped at him, "Don't tell me how I feel or what I mean."

Tom smirked and raised his left brow.

I sighed, "Don't challenge me to a duel again, I don't want to hurt you, and I didn't enjoy hurting you."

He tilted his head to the left and watched me take another gulp out of the firewhiskey. I was obviously tipsy and I wasn't very coordinated during the duel because of the whiskey, but I still, somehow, managed to beat him in a duel. I continued to drink from the large bottle until I started to feel sick. I slammed it down onto the table, leaned back against my chair, and softly groaned. Tom laughed at me and said, "You really are exotic, Karma."

"I'll take that ash a complaamint."

Tom laughed at me and leaned back into his chair. He stared at me with an odd mixture of interest and happiness

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**A/N: Please review!

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**A/N: LOLO: Thanks for the review; I do my best to make it as realistic as possible. I absolutely loathe Mary Sue's or "Tom is a wonderful guy! All he needs is my love and my big boobs and my shoulder to cry on!" fanfics. He's THE DARK LORD, the very young version of THE DARK LORD, obviously he's going to be an insane, manipulative, confusing guy, not some emo kid. Even though emo is in his name, VoldEMOrt. lol

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**A/N: BEN-Beyond the Elusive Nomads -: Thank you for the review, too. It's nice to hear that people like my writing style. :) I didn't want Karma to be alone in a world completely different from her own, so I added a lot of characters so that she'd have familiar faces. I'm glad to hear/read that I've kept the confusion to a minimum. **


	13. Undone

**Chapter Thirteen: Undone

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**

I've never been so confused in my life. He was becoming much too close with me much too quickly. It's probably part of some weird, terrible trick. The future Dark Lord should not open up to me. I'm not special. I'm really not. There's no reason for him to have become so fond of me. He must think that I'm a supporter of his cruelty and insanity, and I'm from one of the purest families, so he probably just wants to use me. Probably for some creepy immortality, purification, 'I'm still a demon inside' potion spell thing.

Tom put some of the potion we've been working on in a vile for him, and then some in a vile for me. We're in potions right now, just awkwardly sitting together. He handed me a vile and said, "Are you ready to test out our concoction?"

I smiled weakly and put the vile an inch away from my lips. "Not really."

Tom laughed at me; we're dressed in each other's clothing, and it's awkward. Tom didn't get my clothes all the way on, but he's going to the second he's "me." His clothes are extremely baggy on me; it was difficult to walk since I'm so much shorter than he is. I sighed and chugged the amount of potion in the vile. Tom saw me do that and chugged his vile of potion. My body felt odd, to say the least. My skin bubbled and my bones stretched. I don't know how I didn't puke from just the looks of it; the feeling was overwhelmingly nauseating. My body twisted and changed from the inside out. My bones grew at a _barely_ slower rate than that of my skin. My hair pulled into my skull, and my vision became significantly better. Who knew Young Voldemort had such great eyes? Besides the whole "oh his eyes drew me into his broken soul, begging me to fix him, to caress him with my loving heart" nonsense in every fan girls fantasy.

Tom looked at me as if I was his personal science experiment as he adjusted my clothing to fit… my body? Is it his or is it mine? Anyway, I adjusted his clothing to fit my fake body, and then said, "I feel very odd."

Tom slowly put his hands to his new breasts and squished them in towards his new ribs. "This body feels odd, too."

"Stop that!" I slapped his hands away from his new boobs.

Tom grinned, "Stop what?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Don't touch my body like that."

"This is _my_ body. It just looks like your body."

I glared at him, "Is that so?" The silk voice I randomly acquired sent chills down my spine. Even when I'm male I'm attracted to him. Does this make me temporarily gay? Can someone be temporarily gay? GRAH. Whatever. He's super hot in too many ways; you get the picture by now.

"Yes, it _is_ so."

We were silent for a moment, but then I smirked crookedly and looked down.

He eyed me and worriedly whispered, "What are you about to do?"

My smirk grew in width, "Don't worry about it."

Tom rushed out, "I'm not worrying."

"Good." I pulled the waist of his pants and boxer briefs away from my new belly button and then down at his crotch.

His eyes grew.

I smirked and cocked my head to the right. I frowned with approval before wiggly my brows. Jane and Lauren saw me do this and they giggled. Bueno smirked and made a second worth of eye contact with me, but I didn't need to stare longer to know he's going to make me tell him everything about this new discovery. I mean, this is in the name of science. And what's the point of an experiment if you don't share your findings?

"Stop it!" Tom pushed the pants back towards my new waist.

I smirked and slapped his new hands away, "Thomas, this is in the name of science—"

"My name is _Tom_," he angrily spat, "and that is in the name of absurdity! You have no reason to—"

"As a matter of fact," I smirked wider and stepped away, "I have to use the lavatory." I turned and looked at Slughorn, who was, thankfully, occupied with a different pair while I violated Tom's physical privacy. "Professor Slughorn?"

He didn't look at me, but he knew we already drank the potion, so he answered, "Yes, Karma?"

"May I go to the lavatory?"

He softly sighed, "Only if you must."

I refrained from giggling and ran out of the room before Tom could protest. Lauren and Bueno followed me out. We ran to the nearest bathroom and into the largest stall possible. Bueno was the last one in the stall, so he locked the door. Lauren looked like Jane, and Bueno looked like Doug, but I knew who was who. I couldn't wipe the excited smirk off my face or take the devious glint out of my eyes. I quickly unbuckled my belt, unbuttoned and unzipped the pants, and shoved the pants and boxer briefs to the floor. Lauren's eyes grew and her mouth was half open, half smiling. I have never seen Bueno happier. His eyes were like the eyes of a child, walking into the lollipop store in Disney Land after being told he could have _two_ lollipops from the store. The corners of his mouth were almost literally from ear to ear. He dropped to his knees, put his hands flat against each other, brought them to his chest and then looked up at the ceiling/Heavens.

"Oh thank you, dear baby Jesus above! Thank you for this masterpiece of masterpieces! You have outdone yourself, and I'm sure you cried tears of pride and joy making this handsome man with this wonderful penis! Thank you, God! Thank you and your wonderful son for making this delicious man! And thank you for allowing me to appreciate this masterpiece. Straight boys don't know what they're missing."

Needless to say, Lauren and I cracked up. We laughed so hard we cried and couldn't breathe, but Bueno was oddly serious. He interrupted our laughter by saying, "Get it up."

I drew in several deep breaths before asking, "Get what up?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes, "Tom's penis, get it up."

"Oh…" I looked down at it. I've touched a penis before, but never one connected to me. I fumbled with it, at first. I wasn't used to the large hands, and I definitely wasn't used to the feeling of a soft penis. After a moments struggle, Bueno sighed loudly with annoyance and stepped past Jane. He gently grasped Tom's penis; I gasped and looked at him, "What are you doing?"

"I'm getting it up since you obviously don't know what you're doing. And I thought you weren't a virgin—"

"I'm not!"

Lauren stepped closer to us with curious eyes, "Since when?"

"Don't worry about it."

"She's been sexually active for the last several years, honey."

"Oh shut up, BuenOOO."

He smirked, "Does Tom likey?"

"GAAH. Stop being creEPy."

Bueno and Lauren laughed while I watched Bueno's expert hands. How did he get so good at this? I guess years of having your own penis to play with pays off. I felt creepy and oddly dirty, though. I only wanted to look at the thing, and now I'm letting someone touch it. Tom's weird and sadistic, but he's not going around class saying, "HEY! LOOK! VAGINA! VAGINA! LETS LOOK AT THIS VAGINA! MAKE A LINE, WE'LL EXAMINE IT TOGETHER!" And even if he was, this is _my_ adventure, okay? This is my job, not Bueno's. He should back off, because this is currently my penis, and I should be the only one physically inspecting it.

I pushed Bueno away from me and said, "Aye! Stop it, okay? This is _mine_."

Bueno scoffed, "Alright, alright. Whatever you say."

I sighed and looked down at it. I'm not horny, but the thing apparently has a mind of its own. "What do I do with this?"

"Just shove it back in your pants."

"I can't go back to class with a boner."

"Then think of things that turn you off."

"Like what?"

"Your parents having sex to make you."

"OH GOD!" Lauren and I both shouted and shuddered.

"Slughorn naked."

"GRAH!" Lauren and I were, again, in unison.

"Spiders."

"_Ewww_."

"Dumbledore doing—"

"That's enough!" I shouted and threw my hands up. I looked down at saw my problem quickly disappearing, "Thank you, Bueno."

He smirked like a small child and replied, "You're welcome."

I shoved the thing back into my pants and slowly walked back to class, giving Bueno and Lauren time to get there before me. I immediately sat down next to Tom once I was back in the class. With a look of annoyance on his face, he asked, "Who else touched me?"

"Just me."

"So your creepy friends didn't—?"

I laughed, "_My_ friends are creepy?" I didn't give him time to respond, "No, only me. Calm down about it."

He didn't answer me in anyway, he probably knew I was lying, but I doubt he cared too much. At least, I doubt he wanted to think about another man touching his penis. Tom made quick eye contact with me before staring back down at his parchment, "We've been assigned an easy."

"On what?"

"Your experience with polyjuice today. It's due on Wednesday since we don't have classes tomorrow."

"Why don't we have classes tomorrow?"

Tom sighed, "I don't know."

"Yes you do."

"No," he said firmly, "I don't know."

"Yes," I said just as firmly, "You do know, but you don't want to explain it to me."

He quietly laughed at me, "I'll explain it to you tomorrow when I walk you to the meeting. The Slug Club meeting."

I nodded and quietly told him, "You're wrong, you know."

He arched his right eyebrow but didn't stop writing his essay; why can't I do that? It's my body, for goodness sake! "Wrong about what?"

"Your '_dream of purity_' is wrong."

He grinned his teeth, "How do you figure?"

"First of all, don't grind my teeth—"

"This isn't going to affect your actual body—"

"I don't care, I don't like it."

He laughed at me, "You're the one touching my penis, but I can't grind your teeth?"

I couldn't stop myself from blurting, "Your penis should be touched. I'll do it again once its yours again, if you'd like."

Tom raised both his brows before scoffing at me, "You're ridiculous. We're dropping this conversation. Continue your previous explanation."

I stared at him (in my body) as he continued to write his essay in perfect calligraphy, "If God allows half bloods and muggle borns and squibs and muggles to exist, then you're no one to make them extinct. You're not God, you don't have the _right _to do any '_purification_'."

Tom sighed and rolled his eyes, "You're naïve."

I refrained from scoffing and slapping him in the face, "You're overconfident and allow yourself to live in false consensus."

Tom bit down on his bottom lip with anger, "You're not a good boxer."

I rolled my eyes, "You're petty and have a heart of stone."

He rolled his eyes, "Your heart it too warm."

"It's not too warm. Quite the opposite, really."

"How so?"

I smirked, "If you haven't already figured it out you're not worthy of the knowledge."

Tom was immediately flustered. He didn't look it, but he couldn't get words out. He flashed me a mean look and said, "I'm doing something at midnight tonight, and it's not Astronomy."

"I'm not going to take your bait."

His lips curled into a small smile, "Good. If I see you I'll let you be a part of it. If I don't, you won't be."

"What if I don't want to be a part of it?"

His smile widened, but it widened deviously. "I know you too well. You want to be a part of it."

Slughorn dismissed the class. The few seconds I looked from Tom to Slughorn, Tom left the room. He was probably going down to his House to change back. The polyjuice is going to wear off soon, and we've all been excused from the next class until we changed back. I wanted to try to find him, in case he wasn't going to his House, but I decided to go change instead.

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**A/N: LOLO: Can Tom fall in love? We shall see. :P**


	14. Trading Heartbeats

**Chapter Fourteen: Trading Heartbeats

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**

I sighed and stared at the wall while Lauren started to get ready for Astronomy. She woke up an hour early so she could finish her chart and be dressed in time. I sighed again, but much louder than before. Lauren whispered, "So you're going to be with Tom?"

"Hopefully."

"Where are you going to wait for him?"

"The Room of Requirement."

Lauren nodded and then asked me, "What do you want me to tell the teach?"

I shrugged, "I don't know."

"Want me to tell him you're both gone 'cause you're fucking?"

I chuckled, "Like it's goin' outta style."

Lauren bit down on her bottom lip to refrain from laughing loudly and waking up our sleeping roommates. I slowly got up and slipped into a baby blue, overhead hoodie, and then into my leather jacket. I grabbed my wand off of my trunk and then told Lauren, "I don't think I'm making a lot of progress with him."

Lauren sat down on the foot of her bed and looked at me, "I think you are."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "I think that his biggest issue, the one thing that makes everything he ended up doing even possible, is because no one loved him. I may not know all that there is to know, and I may not see a lot of things, Karma, but my eyes still work. And you two have chemistry like I've never seen."

"What are you talking about?" I chuckled nervously.

Lauren rolled her eyes at me, "I see how he acts around you. He doesn't act the same way. It's like you two met, you went to a few of his meetings, and he just instantly became comfortable with you. When you ditch classes, he doesn't operate the same. He still functions and all, and he completes the tasks and all, but he isn't as happy or comfortable."

I gulped, "I don't know what I'm doing, Lauren."

"Well," She rolled her head in a circle as if it helped jumble up some thoughts, "I think you're scared. I think you're scared he's going to become the same terrible thing."

I drew in a deep breath and put my hands on the back of my head, "I'm scared I'm going to become some sort of enabler."

Lauren got up, walked over to me, and hugged me. "I believe in you. We all do. The only person who doesn't is you. Just trust yourself. You'll do the right thing."

I hugged her back and squeaked out, "Thanks."

She let me go and nodded, "Go on. It's one thing to keep him waiting, it's another to miss him."

I laughed and then left.

**

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I wasn't going to try to find Tom. If there is one thing I know about him, it's that he'll find me. That being said, I decided to hang out in the ROR. I didn't want to be _too_ hard to find, and where else do you go when you need to find something in this place? It took him about an hour to come and get me, though. I pretended not to notice him when he entered the room. I focused on filing my broken nail on my index finger. Tom took a seat across from me and watched as I made the nail even and matching to my other ones. He smirked with amusement, "Are you too busy for me tonight?"

I didn't look up from my nail, "You make it sound like we're lovers."

Tom laughed. The skin around his eyes crinkled, and the corners of his lips twitched before his cheeks tugged them up. I looked up into his green eyes and softly sighed. They're the same color as a lush, healthy field of grass. Tom leaned forward a little bit and smiled devilishly, "Do you want to see something amazing?"

"Depends on what it is."

His smile grew, "Well, what is your operational definition of amazing?"

I laughed and leaned forward, "How long were you in my room?"

Uncomfortable shock flashed across his eyes, "Why do you think I was in your room?"

"Because that's a term used in psychology, and I know you don't take psychology."

"That doesn't mean I was in your room."

I laughed and leaned even more forward. I rested my elbows on my knees and held my hands together while looking at him. "I won't be mad as long as you tell me the truth."

Tom laughed, "What am I, five?"

I shrugged, "Don't try to change the subject on me, Tom-Tom."

He sighed and leaned back against his chair, "Don't call me that."

"Voldemort is a stupid name and I won't call you it."

He glared at me, "It is _not_ a stupid and you _will_—"

I stood up and started to walk away. I slid my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket, "You're not the boss of me, Tom."

Tom shot up from his seat and followed me. He grabbed my left elbow with his right hand and forcefully yanked me against his chest and then against the wall. He pinned his arms on either side of me. He looked down at me with an angry, power hungry smirk, "It seems I'm in charge of you now."

I refrained from smiling and said, "_Oh no._" in the same voice as the gay guy in Family Guy. What's his name? Bruce? I sighed and pressed my hands against his chest, but I didn't put a lot of force or pressure into it. "I'm stuck against a wall and an extremely handsome young man. Whatever will I do?"

Tom chuckled once and smirked semi-crookedly.

I sighed and relaxed my body, "It's not like I've ever fantasized about this. I am surely doomed."

Tom's smirk widened, "I'm flattered."

"And I am shaking in my pants."

Tom laughed at me and said, "You and your American friends never did catch on, did you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Pants here mean underwear where you're from. What you mean is trousers."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "Your lingo is so weird. Fanny means vagina,"

Tom giggled. Yes, giggled.

"Randy means horny. The loo means bathroom. It's ridiculous."

Tom bent at his knees so we could be eye to eye. Only several inches were between us, sending a small, fast, shiver up my spine. "Anyway, Karma,"

I stared directly into his eyes.

"It seems that I am in charge of you."

I laughed at him.

He glared at me.

"It may seem that way, but the truth is, Tommy," I smirked, "is that you're a megalomaniac. And terrible things will happen if you don't cut all this out now."

Tom pressed his body against me and whispered in my left ear, "Like what?"

I gulped. I didn't feel good this close to him, I didn't feel safe. "Murder, widespread fear. I don't know, Tom, but you need to stop while you still can."

His lips were _maybe _a centimeter away from my ear. His breath tickled my skin as he said, "I can do whatever I want."

My voice shook when I replied, "You're just a man."

He stayed silent.

"And a man can't do whatever he wants. There are bigger things than you, Tom. No matter how powerful you become—"

"You're scared of me right now."

"I'm scared for you."

Tom quickly turned his head to be looking into my eyes, brushing the tip of his nose against my sensitive neck skin. It hurt to look at him since he was so close to me, but I stared back. He stared deep into my dark eyes, and I stared deep into his dark eyes. The left side of his nose rested against the right side of my nose, and I just couldn't help myself. I drew in a deep breath and brushed my lips softly against his. I didn't kiss him, but I did let my lips linger. I didn't move them; I stared into his eyes and watched his stages of reaction. He went from shock to fear to a look I've never seen in him. Tom blinked and then slowly pressed his lips against mine. We awkwardly stared into each other's eyes as he rather clumsily moved his lips to kiss me. We didn't kiss for more than thirty seconds, but it felt like it lasted for an hour. When Tom pulled away I asked him,

"Was that your first kiss?"

"Was it yours?"

I blinked once, "No."

He blinked once, "Yes."

I smiled, but he started to talk before I could voice my true opinion.

"Don't you judge me—"

"I wasn't going to."

Tom stayed silent.

"The way all these girls look at you, you could kiss any one of them. You could kiss them all."

His face was empty of expression, "I don't like any of them. They don't really like me, they like my face."

I stayed silent.

He stayed silent.

I kept on being silent.

So did he.

I stared at him.

He stared back.

I sighed.

He sighed.

I finally broke the ice, "Why did you kiss me?"

"Why did you kiss me?"

"I brushed my lips against yours."

"Then why'd you do that?"

I gulped, "It felt right."

Tom laughed and walked away from me. I stared at him and then asked, "What is the amazing thing you want to show me?"

Tom stopped walking and slid his hands into the pockets in his school slacks. He looked at me over his shoulder, "Do you like to know secrets?"

I couldn't help the crooked smile that crept onto my face. I slid my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket and walked over to him. "I'm especially fond of chambers."

Tom smirked and started to walk out of the ROR. I walked to his right while he said, "Then I think you'll like what I have to show."

My smile widened, "I hope so."

Tom looked at me from the corner of his eyes, but he didn't say anything. He remained silent the whole walk to a very specific bathroom. I lingered at the entrance while Tom walked over to a sink. He whispered "open" in Parsletongue and stepped a few feet back. The sink slowly turned into a hole leading to the bowels of the school. Tom looked over his right shoulder at me, "Are you ready?"

I gulped and walked over to him. I stared down at it and was instantly overwhelmed with fear and surprise. Unlike Harry's experience with the Chamber, a staircase was revealed. Tom slid his right hand out of his pocket and offered it to me. With some hesitance, I took his hand and gulped as he walked us down the old staircase. We weren't even half way down before I said with a cracked voice, "Ta—Tom?"

"Mhm?"

I stopped walking, forcing him to stop. He looked at me over his shoulder. I gulped and said, "I have a terrible feeling that I might not come out of here."

Tom laughed at me, "I won't let anything hurt you, I promise."

"It's not that."

Tom looked a little bit confused, "Then what are you talking about?"

In a shockingly small voice, I whispered, "I'm afraid that I won't be the same person when I come out."

Tom rolled his eyes, "You're worrying over things that aren't going to happen."

I didn't say anything else; I didn't know what else I could say, so I just kept walking with him. He led me into a damp, cold, stone area. Large pillars of Salazar Slytherin held up the chamber; I looked around and gasped with fear and wonder. Tom smirked and looked down at me, "You like the place?"

I gulped, "In a twisted sort of way."

He laughed at me.

I inched closer to him and said, "I want to leave. Now."

His voice had a soft tone of sadism, "But we just got here."

Water splashed and rocks rolled around as the basilisk neared us. I cringed and shamelessly pressed my body against Tom's. I buried my face in his chest and held him tightly. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around me and said, "I can tell it to leave, if you don't want to see it."

"If I look into its eyes I'll die. If I look at its reflection I'll be petrified."

Tom laughed at me, "And you call yourself a bad ass."

"I _am_ a bad ass."

"Then prove it."

I glared at his chest, "I don't have to prove anything to you. You said you wouldn't let anything hurt me, but you're scaring me."

Tom sighed; I didn't need to look up to know he rolled his eyes. He wrapped his robe around me and hissed something. It was a different hiss than I've ever heard him use before. True, I haven't heard him hiss too many times, but I didn't have to hear him many times to know he was using a stronger, different tone. It was filled with dominance and power. I cringed at the sound of it and didn't know what was more dangerous, Tom or the basilisk. Tom sighed as the basilisk slithered away. I could hear that it was long gone, but I didn't let go of him. "The basilisk is gone."

"My fear isn't."

I sighed.

He held me a little bit tighter.

"Tom,"

"Karma,"

"I'm scared for you."

He scoffed, "_Why?_"

"You're making terrible mistakes. You could do such great things, Tom. You could be such a great wizard, you could contribute such great, new things—"

"I will be—!"

"No you won't!"

"Oh how do you know?" He shouted and pushed me away from him, "If you think you're _so_ right—"

"I am right!" I stomped my right foot as if I was a first grader, "Damnit, Tom! I am right! Open your eyes! Take a step back! Understand what you're really planning on doing!"

"How do you know you're right?" He roared and took a step closer to me while angrily waving his arms.

"I wouldn't be here if I was wrong!"

Tom stopped walking.

I gulped.

"What?"

I didn't say anything.

His voice was soft, but it wasn't kind, "What did you say?"

"I—I—"

Tom waved his right hand as if to dismiss his question, "What do you mean? You wouldn't be here?"

He took a step closer, so I took a step back. "That I wouldn't exist—"

"Bull shit!" he shouted, "Bull shit! You and your friends aren't like the rest of us! And it isn't because you're American! You're weird! All of you! You're not just not from here, but you're not from this time!"

I took another step back and defensively put my hands up, "Calm it down a notch, Tom—"

"_When_ are you from?" Tom shouted and took a big step towards me. He tightly gripped my shoulders, making me yelp from the feeling of his fingertips through my jacket and into the top layer of my flesh, "How'd you get here?"

"All I know is why!"

Tom rolled his eyes, "You don't know _when_ you're from?"

"That doesn't matter!" I screamed and pushed him away from me. He stumbled, but he didn't fall. I pulled out my wand with a shaky hand, "All that matters is I'm here, okay? All that matters is why!"

"Why are you here?" He shouted and grabbed his wand. He pointed it at me, but his hand wasn't shaking, "Tell me!"

I drew in a deep breath, "Because you turn into the Devil and cause needless pain and misery and destruction and then you die! You die! Twice, damnit! Because you're too insane and tenacious and you come back even more evil and then you die again! But for good!"

Tom looked at me with wide, horrified eyes. "_What?_"

I gulped; he wasn't lowering his wand.

I stared into his green eyes, "I should have left. I could have figured it out."

He croaked, "Why did you stay?"

I drew in a deep breath, "For the same reason you kissed me."

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**A/N: Please review!

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**A/N: Cass: Another cliff hanger. :P Thanks for reading and reviewing so many of my stories. :)

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**A/N: Imogen-x0x: I'm glad you enjoyed the exploration of Tom's privates. Hahahaha.

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**A/N: LOLO: Thank you so much for your constant reviews! If I knew you in real life I'd give you a huge hug. It was a perverted, but childish thing. haha. :P**


	15. Folkin' Around

**Chapter Fifteen: Folkin' Around**

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Tom stared at me, "What?"

Barely loud enough for me to hear, I whispered, "_Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit._"

Tom walked a step closer to me.

My legs started to wobble.

He kept on walking closer to me.

I had to idea what he was going to do. I drew in a deep breath, spun around, and took off. It was a straight line here from the staircase, so I booked it in a straight line. I didn't care if I stepped in puddles or if I stomped on the old, decaying bones of previous victims or unfortunate animals. I couldn't tell you when I started to shout in terror, I think it was when I heard something hiss. I was too afraid to look behind me to see if it was Tom or his basilisk, and I was too terrified to laugh at the wording in my thought.

"Karma!" He shouted, I could hear him catching up to me. I started to run faster, though. I didn't want to be with him, I wanted to get the hell out of here. The forgotten basement of Hogwarts, where my body could easily be lost, or eaten, is not exactly the place I want to have an argument with a psychopathic murder. He hasn't killed anyone _yet_, but I didn't want to wait around to see when he'd start. "Karma!" he shouted again, "You're right to it!"

Something inside me told me that 'it' wasn't the exit I was looking for, so I stopped and buried my face in my hands. Tom ran up to me, put his hands on his knees, and panted. I was too scared to laugh at him when he said, "Je-_sus_ Christ, you run fast. Your boxing practice must be designed for the Gods of Muscle."

I just stood there, unable to control the shaking of my body. Tom slowly stood up and, with hesitance, awkwardly pulled me into him. He wrapped his robe around me while I practically fused into his chest. "The best exit is the basilisk."

"_Whaaaat?_" I shouted, but his chest muffled the sound of my surprise. "What the _fuck_ do you mean?"

Tom laughed at me, "We could climb up four flights of stairs, in your case, probably end up crawling, we could forever search the infinite tunnels, or we could ride the basilisk out of here. Your choice."

"I'd like to apparate the hell out of here."

"We can't apparate. For one thing, we haven't been trained—"

"Just get me out of here!" My shriek shocked him.

Tom didn't know how to react. He hasn't been yelled at in a long time, especially not by a very angry, very scared, young woman. And we both know that I may be a small woman, but I can kick some serious ass. "Oh… Okay."

I wrapped my arms around him and quietly cried out of fear. My tears made his black sweater vest wet, but he didn't seem to care. Tom called the basilisk to us; when it was in front of us he seemed to be giving it instructions. My belief was confirmed when he told me, "I'm going to guide you onto it. Don't open your eyes until I tell you."

"Okay."

Tom pried me off of him and slowly turned me on. He instructed me on how to get on and securely straddle whatever part of the basilisk we were going to ride. He got on once I was securely on the beast, and probably straddled it the same way he told me to do it. Tom wrapped one arm around me, so I tightly held onto it. I leaned back against him much like when we were flying together. I was still shaking as we slithered away, but not as badly as before. I was still afraid of him, but he ignored the two biggest occurrences of the night to take me places. He didn't talk about kissing me, he just brought me here; he didn't ask me more about what I told him, he's just taking me somewhere else. I squeaked out, "Where are we going?"

In his silkiest, smoothest, calming voice, Tom replied, "To the dungeons. It's the safest place to be dropped off."

I found an odd, totally false sense of safety in his tone and his words. Of course, his protective hold on me helped, too. I relaxed against his body as my breathing slowly went back to its normal rate. I turned my head to the right and rested my face against the area of his chest near his shoulder. I breathed in his oddly sweet scent and let it relax me, even though my mind told me not to like it. Tom told the basilisk to go slower than usual so that I won't be flung off, or start screaming, or you know, react like a normal person would. The slow speed of the basilisk allowed Tom to tighten his protective hold around my waist with his left arm, and press his cold right hand onto my exposed cheek. He soothingly stroked my face and my hair as I refused to think. I didn't let my mental voice say anything, I didn't try to remember anything, and I didn't try to plan anything. I let him completely control everything. As bad as that is, and as bad as that is for him, he's pretty damn good at it, so why fight it when I can't even control the wobbling of my legs?

Tom slid us off the basilisk once we were in some dingy, obviously abandoned dungeon, and told it to go back to the chamber. My breathing started to become fast, loud, and labored again when the giant snake slithered back home. I looked at him with fear filled eyes. No emotion was on his face. That scared me beyond belief. I had to way to even guess his next move. Tom turned to start talking to me, but I booked it, again. He groaned and then started to run after me, again. But I was much more scared this time. I'm "safe" now, but I have no idea what's going on. And I couldn't shake my thoughts away anymore. Did I just ruin everything? Does letting him know his future put a giant slash through time and space and all those other dimensions I don't understand? What are the consequences of what I have done?

"Karma! Wait!"

I ran faster.

Tom half shouted, half panted, "Wait! Let me explain! KARMA!"

I half slipped, half turned the corner. I looked over my shoulder to see if Tom was close to me, but he was at least twenty yards behind me, so I didn't freak out. I slipped on something, though, and slid into Slughorn's office. I slid right into Doug as he yawned. My stomach slammed into his stretched out and flexed arm, making me hang over him and immediately puke. Doug looked down at me with shock and disgust. He quickly withdrew his arm from my stomach and held my hair away from my face. Doug balanced my weakening body as Slughorn and about a third of the Slug Club stared at me. Tom jogged into the room and stared at me with wide eyes. Doug tried to ask me what was wrong and what happened in between my heaves, but I couldn't talk, I could only pant. In an attempt to soothe me, Doug quietly sang me Behind the Sea by Panic! at the Disco. When I was finally able to stop puking, Doug sat me down in his chair. I slumped over and stared at the ground in between my knees.

Slughorn cleared his throat, "Did something happen in Astronomy, Miss Kinzek?"

I stayed silent, so Tom answered, "We didn't go to Astronomy, sir."

Everyone then stared at Tom. He leaned against the doorway and slid his hands in his pockets. Slughorn drew in a deep breath, "Why? And where did you two go?"

"We explored the hidden tunnels of the castle, sir."

Slughorn became slightly more assertive, "Why?"

Tom drew in a deep breath before answering him. "I was trying to swoon her, sir."

The boys chuckled while Slughorn smiled. Doug stood up completely straight and glared at Tom, "Nonsense."

Everyone looked at Doug.

"What were you doing to her?"

Tom put an innocent and confused look on his face, "I didn't do anything—"

Doug shouted, "Own up to your short comings!" He squeezed his left hand into a fist, "Karma doesn't just run away from shit and puke everywhere! Karma is a mothafuckin' badass! She stands up and she works through shit! So what the hell did you do to her?"

Everyone stared back and forth between Tom and Doug. Slughorn cleared his throat and said, "I think the best thing to do right now would be to get Karma back into her House."

Doug gently wrapped his right arm around me and helped me up. My legs were stable again, so I didn't need his help to stand or walk, but his muscular arm around me was a huge comfort. Doug stopped at the doorway because Tom said, "I'll walk her to the Gryffindor House."

Doug snapped his head to the right and practically growled, "It's my House, too. _I'll_ walk her there. I'm going there anyway—"

In a very polite and calm voice, Tom told Doug, "I'd like to talk to her—"

Doug barked, "I'm sure you would!"

I softly cleared my throat and said, "I want to talk to him, too."

Tom smirked while Doug looked down at me, "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Then… Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Do you want me to be close by?"

I smiled, "Yes."

Tom rolled his eyes and flicked his wand at my mess. Everything was almost instantly clean and fresh again. He waved his wand at me, too, and cleansed me of my puke and its smell and taste. Doug let go of me, but he whispered so only the three of us could hear, "Hurt her again and I'll shove my fist directly though your face. In from the front, clean outta the back of that smart head."

Tom gulped and nodded while I started to walk away. Tom followed me while Doug lingered in the doorway.

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Avery laughed at me, "Someone's over protective, ehy?"

"Someone has never experienced love, ehy?"

All the boys who were laughing at me stopped. I turned around while Avery asked, "You're in love with her?"

I leaned against the doorframe, "I'm not _in_ love with her, but I do love her."

"What's the difference?"

Slughorn smiled and sat back down, "Boys, boys, boys."

We all looked at Slughorn while he made himself comfortable. I've never felt so sick with him. He's a nice guy and a good teacher, but my God is he weak. He just let us completely take over the situation, and he didn't pursue what was wrong with Karma. Who knows what that assfuck did to her, or where in the world he really took her. Or what the hell he's going to do to her now that they're alone again.

"There is a big difference between being in love and loving, boys."

Avery relaxed against his seat, "Please do tell us, Professor Slughorn."

He smiled, "You can love people without being in love with them. To love is to have an immense sense of care for someone. Of course affection, too, but it isn't a romantic affection. Think of your best friend, boys. You're not _in_ love with him, but you care for him. What if he died? Wouldn't you boys be devastated?"

Avery nodded, "Yes, sir."

"But you're not in love with your best friend. You don't dream about them, you don't want to be with them all the time."

I interrupted Slughorn, "You creeps would be lucky to ever fall in love." I went over to my chair and grabbed my wand, "You bow down to a freak and you think it's great. Your racism blinds you and you think you're the best at everything possible, that everyone is beneath you."

Everyone glared at me, except Slughorn. He stared at me with curiosity.

"You come from rich families. Every boy in here comes from a rich family. You don't know real danger, and you don't know real pain. And yet you sit around like everything is just _so_ beneath you. You haven't used your hands for anything but to pass a class, kiss some ass, and be creeps. May there be mercy for your sick souls."

I didn't wait around for them to reply or get defensive. I walked right out of there and didn't look back. I strained my ears to hear Karma and Tom's footsteps. He was walking her to Gryffindor Tower alright, but I don't know where the hell he walked her before all this. I stayed a good distance behind them, almost a flight behind them, but I did my best to ease drop on them the whole time.

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I crossed my arms across my chest and held my elbows in my hands. Tom kept looking at me, but he didn't say anything, so I stopped walking. He stopped walking, too, but he still didn't say anything, so I did. "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing important."

I groaned and leaned against the wall. There was a brick that was jetted out just enough for me to step on it, so I did and became almost eye level with Tom. "I deserve answers, Tom. I deserve real, honest, answers."

Tom sighed and started up what I've learned to be his nervous habit: casually fiddling his wand and emptying his face of emotion. "What do you want to know?"

"Well…" I looked him up and down once, "Why did you kiss me?"

Tom rolled his eyes, "You already know why, next question."

"No!" I angrily shouted, "I don't know why!"

Tom stared at me. "Take a wild guess."

"I don't want to guess, Tom! Just tell me!"

Tom drew in a deep breath, "You've grown on me."

"What am I?" I glared at him, "A fungus to you? We spend all this time together, you've randomly opened up to me, and now you want to be your usual, introverted self?"

Tom laughed and rolled his head to the right and then to the left to relax himself, "I don't know, Karma. You're just different. You're different and I like it."

I sighed and stared off to the right.

Tom took a step closer to me, putting only six inches between us. He put his wand away and ran his newly free hand through his hair, "Why'd you…" He smiled awkwardly, "_brush_ your lips against mine?"

I laughed and looked back up at him. His expression was soft with subtle hints of genuine curiosity. The candles floating around the castle were dimmer than usual, but we could still see clearly. They gave him a strange glow. The light didn't give him some sort of a halo around his hair or anything, but it gave him a silhouette of light, somehow enabling me to trust him. "I don't know," I stretched my legs by standing on my toes for a second or two, "I just like you, I guess."

Tom laughed and made the gap in between us four inches, "You answered your own question."

I sighed and looked into his green eyes, "I'm scared, Tom."

He sighed, "Why? Of what?"

In a very soft voice, I replied, "I think that deep down you don't really hate every single nonpureblood out there. I think what you really hate is being alone."

Tom silently stared at me.

"I think you feel alone, Tom. I think that you've always felt unwanted. And I know you're wrong."

Tom closed the gap in between us. Our lips were _maybe_ a centimeter away when he said, "What am I wrong about?"

I gulped, "You're not alone, and you're not unwanted."

"I've been alone for fifteen years. No one's adopted me—""

I kissed him. I didn't care if he wanted me to or not. I didn't care if was in the mood for one or not. But he accepted it, he even returned it, so he must have wanted one. We parted for a very brief second. "I'll be with you as long as I live."

Tom put his right hand against the wall for support while he snaked his left arm around me. He brushed his lips against mine while I wrapped my arms around his neck, "Do you promise?"

I gently played with his hair and ran my hands through his perfectly combed hair. How is his hair still nice after all of that? "I will never willingly leave you."

Tom kissed me. He was rather clumsy at first, but he quickly got the hang of it. He let me lead the motions until he fully understood what to do and when to do it. I ran my hands through his hair and let out small groans of encouragement when he did things right. He smirked whenever I did that, but I didn't really care. He firmly pressed me into the wall behind me, but stopped kissing me when we heard Doug's footsteps. We parted and had some sort of silent agreement since we both started to walk again. I stopped and waited for Doug to catch up with us. Doug walked straight up to me, so I quietly told him, "I'm going to be alright."

"Are you sure?" he whispered.

"Yeah," I nodded my head up and down, "Yeah, go to bed. I have some talking to do."

Doug laughed and said, "Okay." He walked away from me and glared at Tom while walking past him. We waited for Doug to climb up the next flight of stairs before we started to talk again. Tom walked over to me and nervously sighed, "Why are you scared of me or for me?"

I sighed and leaned against the railing of the staircase. The staircase started to move, but I've seen it happen so many times now that it doesn't bother me. I stared at the sleeping people in the portraits, "I know what you become, and I'm afraid it's inevitable. But if it's inevitable I wouldn't have been sent back, right?"

Tom leaned against the railing, too. I could feel his eyes staring at my face. "Right."

"I mean, no one has been petrified or died yet. I've got to be doing something right."

Tom gently cupped my face in his right hand and whispered, "What do I become without your intervention?"

I gulped as I was forced to look up at him, "Something terrible and evil."

"And what happens?"

"I…" I seriously thought, "I… don't remember."

Tom didn't believe me. "What do you mean, you don't remember?"

I slowly brought my left hand up to his right and took his hand off of my face. I squeezed his hand and started to walk down the staircase. It stopped moving once it came into contact with a new area to walk. "What I mean is that everything happens for a reason, Tom—Tom, and that when things change other things further down change, too."

He rolled his eyes, "What are you talking about?"

I started to walk us down the stairs. "Take the movement of the stairs, for example. That particular case is usually pretty fixed, but it randomly moved in the middle of the night for what? For us. We're the only two out here, we're the only two on it. It didn't move for Doug, it moved for us."

"And where exactly is it supposed to be moving us to?"

I sighed, "Where does it go if we walk up the stairs?"

Tom shrugged, "I think a storage area. The storage tower or something."

"And if we keep walking down?"

"The Great Hall."

"And what House is near the Great Hall?"

Tom sighed, "The Hufflepuff House—"

"Karen's House."

Tom laughed at me, "You want to see Karen? I thought you didn't like her at all—"

"I'm not too fond of her, but she always seems to have something useful. She just never tells you about it. She always thinks that the things that you actually need are useless to you."

Tom laughed, "And what are you looking for?"

I shrugged and squeezed his hand, "A couple of books."

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**A/N: Please review! More reviews = more incentive to update.

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**A/N: Imogen-x0x: Thank you so much for your review! They're an awkward pair, huh? But I think it makes them cute. C:**


	16. Don't Sweat the Technique

**Chapter Sixteen: Don't Sweat the Technique**

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Tom knew the password to the Hufflepuff house; I didn't ask him how or why even though he has no reason to ever visit the Hufflepuff House. Except for me, all of his "friends" are in Slytherin. But hey, his seemingly useless information came in pretty hand, so I'm not going to complain. Tom grunted as I pulled on his hand when I started to run faster, "Why are we even seeing Karen?"

I rolled my eyes while running down the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Apparently Helga Hufflepuff trusted the male members of her house since the stairs didn't do anything funky when Tom stepped on it, and I know first hand that he's a man. A very, very, _powerful_ man, if you catch my drift. Anyway, I didn't stop running until I found Karen's dorm. I couldn't get her out of bed until I told her Tom Riddle was here to see her. She immediately jumped out of bed and magically lit several candles around her four-poster bed. Tom awkwardly smiled and waved at her. Karen blushed and then looked at me, "What do you guys need at his hour?"

I quietly asked her, "Do you have any of the Harry Potter books with you?"

"What?" She leaned over as if she could somehow get closer to my already spoken words, "The Harry Potter books?"

I sighed, placed my left hand on my hip and my right hand on my forehead, "Yes, thank you for yelling it."

Karen shrugged and then got off of her bed. She shuffled the items in her trunk around for a few minutes until pulling out several books, "I only brought my favorites."

I smiled and then laughed, "Why was I the only one who did _not _pack for a very long trip?"

Karen laughed at me, "That's a good question." She smiled and handed me her stack of books: The Chamber of Secrets, The Half Blood Prince, and The Deathly Hallows. I put them down on her nightstand and then opened the Chamber of Secrets. It immediately disintegrated when I opened the book. Karen started at me with anger and awe, "Why'd you ruin my book?"

"I, I didn't mean to. It just happened."

She sighed.

I smiled, "But isn't that good news?"

Karen sat down on her bed, "How?"

"If it disintegrates it means all of that stuff didn't happen, right?"

She shrugged, "I guess so."

"I mean, as far as the stuff in the second book, anyway—"

A soft, timid voice from the bed behind me said, "Uhm, excuse me?"

I looked over my right shoulder and at the owner of the voice.

"I don't mean to be rude, but it is a school night, and I'm trying to sleep…"

I quietly gasped; there are classes tomorrow and it's well past one in the morning. Damn that Tom Riddle. "I'm so sorry, we'll leave right now."

She smiled shyly, "Thanks."

I grabbed the two remaining books and walked out of the dorm. Tom and Karen followed me out and to the Hufflepuff common room. I plopped down on a large, comfortable, yellow armchair and crossed my legs. I put the seventh book on my lap and opened up the Half Blood Prince. Most of the pages were blank; the chapter on Slughorn's memory, much to my relief, was blank. However, the whole part on Dumbledore dying and people fleeing to the Dark Lord was still in existence. I sighed, but then I realized that the pages looked oddly blurry. I called Karen over from the armchair opposite me and asked her, "Do the pages look blurry to you, too?"

She looked at it for a minute, "Yeah, they do. That's weird."

"Yeah…" I put that book down and picked up and opened The Deathly Hallows. Most of the pages were blank, but the few pages that were in there were all about the Dark Lord version of Tom, but they were all extremely blurry; we could barely read the pages. I drew in a deep breath while Karen asked me,

"What do you think that means?"

I thought it all over for a minute or two before saying, "I think it means that it _could_ happens, not that it _does_ happen."

Tom asked with a surprisingly soft voice, "What do you mean by that?"

I looked up to see him in a way I've never seen before. Fear, curiosity, and excitement contorted his handsome face. I wasn't sure if he was excited because he still had a chance of being the Dark Lord, or because he now had a choice. Sure, he always did have a choice, but now he knows something different. I gulped, "I mean that you don't have to become a Dark Lord. I mean that your future isn't set in stone, and I hope you chose the path that isn't to the Dark Lord."

Tom sat down on the black loveseat across from me. He buried his face in his hands and said something, but I didn't hear him well enough to know what he said, so I asked him to repeat himself. "I can't control it."

"What are you talking about?" I jumped up, "Obviously so if you have a choice now—!"

"No!" Tom jumped up, too, and said, "_It._ Our… Our traveling system of the night, I can't control it—!"

"What?"

Tom stared at me.

I said it again, only louder.

"I can't control—"

I jumped up and brought my knees into my chest before stomping as my landing. "WHAT?"

Tom smirked to refrain from laughing at me. I tossed the seventh book onto the armchair I was just on and shouted, "But! But!" I drew in a deep breath and angrily whispered, "But you're the _heir_ for Chrissake! You're—"

"I'm not full, err…" Tom sighed and sat back down on the loveseat, "I'm only a half blood, it doesn't fully respect me."

I let myself fall down onto the cold but clean wooden floor of the Hufflepuff common room. "Then what are we supposed to do?"

Tom raised his right brow, "_We?_"

I smiled crookedly, "You don't think that I'd let you do this on your own, do you?"

"It's _my_ problem—"

I gave him the sternest look I've ever given to anyone, "I didn't come back in time to watch you struggle, Tom, I came back to help you—"

Tom sprung out of his seat, "I don't need your help!"

I jumped up from the floor, "Obviously you do—!"

"Who do you think you are, anyway? You randomly appeared in my life and you messed with my emotions and now you want to _help_ me?"

I angrily patted my hair down onto my head, "God damnit, Tom! Don't you see? Don't you see that things don't have to be this way? Things don't have to always be terrible for you—"

Karen backed a few feet away while he took a step closer to me, "Things aren't terrible for me!"

"Oh please!" I took a step closer to him, "Your mother died and your father abandoned you! Instead of coping and moving on, you have some insane grudge over it all and you want to murder a whole group of people, but in the mean time you're chillin' in an orphanage! No one has showed you true care or any type of real love and now you're like this!"

Tom flung his hands into the air and waved them around, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"That you don't have to be trippin' all the damn time—"

"SPEAK IN ENGLISH, GOD DAMNIT!"

"I THINK YOU HAVE SOME SERIOUS GOD DAMN ISSUES, TOM! I THINK THAT YOU'RE TOO FULL OF YOURSELF TO WANT TO COPE WITH YOUR PROBLEMS LIKE A REGULAR HUMAN—"

"I'M NOT A REGULAR HUMAN!"

"Guys!" Karen worriedly shouted, but we both ignored her, "_Guuuys!_"

He repeated himself and took a step closer to me, "I AM NOT A REGULAR HUMAN!"

I rolled my eyes, "JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN SPEAK TO SNAKES AND DO CRAZY MAGICAL SHIT AS A CHILD MAKES YOU SO MUCH ABOVE US, HUH? BECAUSE YOU WERE GIVEN MORE REFINED ABILITIES SOONER? YOU KNOW WHY YOU WERE GIVEN THOSE? BECAUSE YOU HAD LOST SO MUCH ELSE! AND INSTEAD OF USING THEM FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, YOU WENT ALL INSANE AND HATEFUL!"

We still ignored Karen even though she shouted, "GUYS!"

"SO YOU'RE JUST GONNA GIVE UP, EHY?" Tom was literally five inches away from me as he yelled, "WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO EVEN START PREACHING TO ME ABOUT BEING NORMAL AND WHAT LOVE IS? WHO SAYS MY PARENTS DIDN'T—?"

"YOUR MOTHER GAVE YOUR FATHER LOVE POTION TO CONCEIVE YOU! YOU PROBABLY CAN'T EVEN REALLY LOVE ANYWAY, SO I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M EVEN HERE!"

Tom went to slap me, but I stormed off. I half stomped, half ran to the door, but I stopped half way there when he said, "You're wrong."

I didn't turn around, "Your mother _did_—"

"I'm not talking about my parents."

I slowly turned around, "Then what are you talking about?"

He gulped and practically whispered, "I can love."

I just stood there.

"I just don't know what to do with it."

I smiled crookedly, "You don't know what to do with your love?"

Tom smiled awkwardly, "You appeared in my life so oddly that I'm up half the night every night wondering if you'll leave just as fast, just as oddly. And I think that if I don't address it I won't have to worry about it, but I just worry more, and I have no one to talk to about it. Abraxas is always talking about you, and I really don't give a damn how he feels, but it doesn't make my thoughts any clearer to hear how confused you make him."

I crossed my arms against my chest and took a long step closer to him.

Tom sighed and ran his hands through his hair, "I troll the corridors quite often, just so I can think without these dunces interrupting me, and I often see you with your bother. The fact that you take so much time out of your day, time you should be utilizing for your academics or your boxing, you spend it with him."

I took another step closer to him and softly said, "That's my brother, Tom. We are connected by blood. We look alike, we think alike, we sound alike, we are alike. To deny him would be to deny myself."

Tom sighed again and absent-mindedly shook his head from left to right, "I always figured you did it out of some sort of obligation. The women at the orphanage don't have any special interest in me; they _have_ to take care of me. If you don't take care of Nalo no one will. But you do it out of what? Why?"

I took one final step towards him, "Because everyone deserves love, and whom else am I supposed to give my love to? I hate his father, but I don't hate him. Nalo did nothing wrong. And besides, Tommy," I smiled again, "to see the joy in his face when I spend time with him is worth all my time."

Tom was silent.

"I'm just really quite selfish. I do it because his happiness makes _me_ feel good."

Tom laughed, "I always knew that deep down, you're a terrible person."

I laughed and opened my arms as if to hug him. Tom looked at me curiously, but then opened his arms, took one step forward, and scooped me into his arms. He held me awkwardly for a long time before whispering, "I see you teaching Nalo how to play instruments, helping him with his subjects, with his young boy problems, with his homesickness, and I just can't figure out how you know what to do with it."

"It?"

He gulped, "Your love. Why don't you just ignore him and focus on you? You are the most important person in your life."

"I don't have any answer besides the one I've already given you."

Tom was silent.

I wrapped my arms around him and breathed out loudly, "Love is meant to be _given_, not ignored. If it was meant to be ignored you would never see people expressing their love. Love isn't something explainable; it's just something that happens. And you just have to figure out what to do with it. Keeping it hidden and packed away inside you isn't what you should do."

Tom squeezed me into him and sighed. "It seems like I should be able to do whatever I want with my love."

I sighed, "Fine, Tom. Fine." I pressed my hands against his chest and tried to break free from him, but I couldn't. I looked up at him to tell him to let me go, but he randomly kissed me. He stared into my eyes as he softly captured my lips with his. The kiss was, at first, awkward; he still was rather unsure how to go about it, and I was caught off guard. I slid my hands up his chest and around his neck, but he had to hunch awkwardly due to our one-foot height difference, so he wrapped his arms tightly around me, picked me up, and stood me on a very small table. I sighed and ran my hands through his _still_ neat hair. We kissed until someone giggled. I pulled away from him and giggled at his happily dazed expression. He didn't say anything or change his facial expression; he drew in a deep breath and immediately started to kiss me again. Tom slowly slid his right hand from my mid back to my left hip, and finally into my back pants pocket. I quickly swatted his hand away. Tom pulled away from me and said,

"What?"

I rolled my eyes, "You're not my boyfriend, we shouldn't even be kissing—"

Tom looked at me as if I was the Devil stuck in the mind of the stupidest troll. "We just, we just told each other what we feel and you say—"

I sighed, "You have no idea how many times I thought that was enough."

He glared at me, "I'm not some stupid boy from your damn—"

I glared back and slid my hands back down onto his chest, "I didn't say you were."

Tom hurriedly spat, "Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I'm scared, Tom. I'm scared and I'm nervous and I just want a legit question so I can give you a legit answer and be in a legit relationship."

Tom rolled his eyes and turned his head to the right, but he turned it back a second later and looked very amused, "Will you be in a legit romantic relationship with me?"

I laughed and leaned into him. I carefully pressed my forehead against his shoulder and replied, "Yes, I will be in a legit romantic relationship with you."

Tom laughed but then tensed. I looked up at him and asked, "What's wrong?"

He drew in a deep breath and said, "It's late, and we have to start a project in DADA tomorrow—"

"What's really wrong?"

Tom laughed again, "It's two in the morning; we have to be up and ready and functional in seven hours."

I sighed, "Will you carry me to Gryffindor Tower? I'm _so_ tired."

Tom quickly picked me up – earning a squeal from me – and put me down on the ground, "No, but I'll walk you."

I pouted.

"You look like a dog with down syndrome."

"WHAAAAT?" I shouted, glared at him, and punched him in the shoulder.

He quickly sucked in a breath and rubbed his left shoulder with his right hand, "What was that for?"

I wiggled away from his left arm and slowly walked away, "You called me a dog."

"Oh dear God. Are you serious, Karma—?"

Someone snickered.

Tom practically snapped his head off of his neck by turning it to the right so fast. I was going to laugh at Tom, but then I saw the somewhat large group of people near the dormitory doors. Twenty, maybe thirty tired Hufflepuffs were standing there with grins. Karen cleared her throat and took a step forward so Tom and I could see her, "I _tried_ to tell you guys—"

I sighed angrily and walked over to Tom. I grabbed his left hand right before he grabbed his wand. I held onto it with both of my hands and tugged him forward, "Come on, lets just go."

Tom pulled me into him, "Such disrespect should—"

"Be expected of teenagers. We woke them all up with our arguing. Calm down about it, it doesn't matter."

Tom angrily sighed and shook me off of him. He stormed out of the room; I sighed, ran my hands from my collarbone to the back of my neck, and tentatively followed him out. He wasn't in the corridor when I walked out of the Hufflepuff House and towards the main staircase. I figured he rounded the corridor and went down to the dungeons until he reached the Slytherin House. I mumbled to myself while I climbed up the stairs, taking them two at a time; I didn't stop mumbling like that creepy thing with the ring in Lord of the Rings – you know, that thing that's like _my preeecciouss_ – until Tom stepped out of no where and in front of me. He coolly leaned against the railing and quietly told me, "I had a dream three nights ago."

I yawned and leaned against the railing, too, "What happened in it?"

Tom swallowed the spit in his mouth and loudly breathed out of his nose before telling me anything. "I dreamed that not only did I kill Nalo, but I became him."

Air uncomfortably rushed into the back of my head from how wide I opened my eyes.

"And I dreamed that you were okay with that. Like you didn't even notice the difference. And you took care of me."

I opened my mouth a centimeter, maybe two, and gave him my best, "What the _FUCK_ are you talking about?" look.

Tom stared into my eyes, "I have no desire to do that, so stop worrying."

My eyes slowly went back to their usual size.

"However, I do desire you, and to throw away what I just acquired would be foolish."

I closed my mouth and swallowed my spit. In a tired, cracked voice, I asked him, "Is this an apology?"

"Yes."

I smiled sleepily and looked up at him with lazy eyes, "I imagine that not too many people get sincere apologies from you."

He smirked, "You'd be correct."

I drew in a deep breath and cuddled into his chest. He awkwardly, but less awkwardly than before, loosely wrapped his arms around me. I breathed in his surprisingly sweet scent and said, "I want you to know now that I have no idea what's going to happen once I finish whatever I was supposed to do here. I don't know if I'm going to wake up or be sent back to my own home in my own time, and I don't know if some twisted game will happen to me with something involving Nalo, but I do know that I'd like to stay with you."

He timidly played with my loose hairs.

"And I'm not going to lie to you, Tom."

He whispered, "About what?"

"I think that I could fall deeply in love with you, but if I ever have to pick between you and Nalo, I have to pick Nalo."

Tom squeezed me to him.

"Do you understand wha—?"

"No," Tom laughed, "Not really. But I see how much of a mother you have to be for him, and I know that good mothers never leave their children unless it's time to let their children go, and he's only eleven."

I smirked crookedly and nuzzled my face into his chest. "Your mother loved you, Tom, and I'm sure she still does love you—"

"You don't know—"

"Neither do you. But my thought process makes more sense, it really does. If she didn't love you wouldn't she have just left you to die?"

Tom bitterly responded, "She could have left me with _her_ family—"

"They abused her."

He didn't question me.

"They abused her emotionally and physically. I don't know for sure, Tom, but I know from my own experience that I would never just leave Nalo in our shitty apartment. There are too many dangers, too many chances for people to harm him. You'd have been harmed in the place she grew up; your father was a man they deeply hated _and_ a muggle. And they didn't really like _her_ much either. You were safest at the orphanage."

Tom squeezed me so tightly that I probably should have been snapped in half. "She died. She was a witch—!"

"She was weak, Tom! Her heart was broken and she was homeless and pregnant! Stop focusing on what she couldn't do for you and think about what she did!"

Tom gulped angrily.

"She made sure you survived, Tom. She probably wanted to die long before your birth, but she used the little bit of strength in her to make sure _you_ were okay, not _herself_."

Tom gulped again, but it was his calming down gulp.

I snuggled closer to him, "Nalo is ten years old."

Tom was silent for a few minutes, but then he whispered, "How old are you?"

I smiled crookedly again, "I'm seventeen."

Tom laughed, "Then why are you in fifth year?"

"Because _you're_ in fifth year. I had to make sure I was with you."

He played with my hair again, but in a much more relaxed manner. "I'm flattered."

I laughed, "I was sucked back into time and into a world I didn't even know existed; I was obviously sent back to be with you."

"How do you know that?"

I sighed, "It's honestly too much to explain. At least at this hour."

Tom stopped squeezing me to death and kissed the top of my head, "You make me feel odd."

I laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"I don't know if I like it, but I feel better… I feel good when I like it. When I allow myself to like you."

I looked up at him with confused concern, "_Allow_ yourself—?"

Tom sighed, "What I mean is that I allow myself to focus on something besides myself and my future."

I cuddled against him again, "I will skin you alive and throw you in a tub of salt if you make those pages clear again."

Tom cringed and then laughed, "What would it mean if the pages were clear again?"

"That you made a colossal chode of yourself—."

"Chode?"

I giggled, "It's the term for a penis that's wider than it is long."

Tom's body stiffened, "Oh sweet Jesus!"

I laughed, "_Anyway,_ it'd mean that you made a colossal chode of yourself and became the Darkest Wizard of all time and eventually end up killing yourself after trying to kill a young teenager who continuously owned you."

"That sounds terrible."

"I know."

"You know, being the Darkest, most powerful wizard in the world—"

I did my best imitation of a purr and rubbed the right side of my face lovingly against his chest.

"Just to end up being defeated by a school kid."

I rolled my eyes.

Tom chuckled.

Abraxas sighed.

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**A/N: Please review! ****The fanfic nerd inside me lives for reviews. :P**

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**A/N: alieboo: I don't think I ever responded to your review, and if you're still reading this story, I want you to know that I appreciate your review on chapter eight, and I'm so sorry I never responded. I don't have any idea why I didn't respond, and I hope you didn't take it personally. So I'll say it again, thank you for your kind, seemingly excited review! I really do appreciate it! **

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**A/N: Luna4816: Thanks for your review! I love to hear what people think of my story/plot or characters. :D (Hope this update was soon enough for you. lol)**

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**A/N: LOLO: I always get so mad when I read fanfics and Tom is good at EVERYTHING, including everything sexual. Tom Riddle, AKA young Voldemort, didn't give a rats ass for anyone besides himself, so he didn't care for his female peers, therefore he didn't care enough to actually get physical with him. He's a psychopathic murder; he still has hormones so I'm sure he still had sexual desires, but in that time period - the forties - people weren't as sexual as our generation. You'd usually be in a very serious relationship before you got ANYWHERE CLOSE to ANYTHING sexual. I guess the point of this rant is that I've always pictured him Tom as extremely inexperienced with sex since the girls he would try to get involved with would want emotional commitment or, you know, regular human emotions returned, and he couldn't give that or "be bothered" with such.**

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**A/N: Cass: Did you guess correctly? hahaha. Thanks, I have some big plans for this story, and I'm glad you like what I have up so far. :) I'm glad I have had you as a fan of my fanfiction for so long; you often review and you give your honest opinions. Plus you've told (at least) one person to come to my page and read my work, too. Thanks. :)(:**


	17. All Through the Night

**Chapter Seventeen: All Through the Night

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Tom squeezed me tightly to him and looked over to where Abraxas stood. I firmly pressed my hands against his chest, but he didn't loosen his hold on me. "Isn't this cute?" Abraxas said sarcastically and sneered at us. Tom let go of me just to step in front of me.

"What do you want, Malfoy?"

"I was curious as to where you were."

"Why is my location any of your business?"

"I didn't mean _you_, Riddle." He snapped and quickly raised and lowered his brows while I peeked around Tom. "I meant Karma."

I gulped and slowly stood back behind Tom. I gulped while Tom snapped, "Her location is none of your concern."

Abraxas' voice became extremely cold very fast, "Such purity shouldn't be with such tainted blood."

Tom immediately reached for his wand, but I grabbed his hand tried to pull him up the stairs with me. Tom yanked his hand out of my hands and grabbed his wand anyway; before Abraxas had time to do anything, Tom hexed him. I gulped, cringed, and then dared to look at Abraxas. He was gasping for breath; I couldn't _see_ anything happening, but I know Tom well enough to know that something was happening. I was going to ask what Tom had done, but I somehow suddenly knew. I looked at Tom and gulped before my trembling lips opened, "Stop that, stop it."

Tom ignored me and glared at Abraxas.

"You're above this, Tom."

Tom bitterly snapped at me, "Don't tell me—!"

"Stop it!" I screamed and grabbed a hold of his wand hand, but I didn't move his hand. "Stop it!" I looked into his cold, focused eyes. "To show concern is not showing weakness! To walk away from bullshit words that are designed to hurt you is not weakness! If anything, this is weakness!"

Tom didn't lift his hex, but he did look at me.

I drew in a deep breath and said, "Abraxas is trying to upset you, trying to hurt you. You're not punishing him with whatever internal pain you are thrusting upon him, if anything, you're hurting yourself."

Tom glared at me and growled, "How is this hurting me?"

A shiver of terror ran down my body, but I answered him anyway. "What you're doing isn't your job. Such a punishment isn't met for you to deal. He was trying to hurt you, Tom. He wants you to be upset, doing this is really just pleasing him. Save these actions for when you actually have to defend yourself."

Tom lifted the curse, but he didn't look away from me. My breathing quickened, but then it stopped. An odd variation of realization settled in my chest, somehow forcing me to start walking away from them. I absent-mindedly ran my hands through my hair from stress and walked around Tom. They both stared at me while I walked up the staircase, but I only had to walk up a few before Tom said, "Karma."

I stopped walking, but I didn't turn around.

Tom sighed and walked up the staircase and stood on the step below me; his light, quiet breathing made the back of my neck tingle. "Karma," he sighed and then drew in a deep breath. "I…" Tom sucked his lips into his mouth with thought. "I…"

I shook my head from left to right, "I will not accept an apology because I am not the one you hurt. I don't expect you to apologize to Abraxas, especially since he really wanted you to do something. I just need you to try, Tom." I turned around to face him and placed my hands on his shoulders. I lovingly squeezed them and said, "I'm falling in love with you Tom, but you're going to break my heart if you don't try to be a better person, if you don't try to control your urges to hurt."

Tom nodded and stared into my concerned eyes. He gulped and then whispered, "May I spend the night with you?"

"Wha—?"

"I know that sounds terrible," he rushed out and then placed his hands on top of mine, "but that's not what I mean. I'd like to be near you tonight."

I tilted my head to the left with slight confusion, but I said, "I guess so… Sure."

Tom smiled weakly and ignored Abraxas' slow attempts of standing back up. I probably should have stopped walking away, I probably should have gone back to help him, but I didn't. I couldn't. I needed to walk away. I can't be everyone's Goddamn hero all the damn time. Sometimes I have to act with my own best interest in mind. Tom and I walked up to the Gryffindor Tower; the staircase to the girls' dorms turned into a slide when he tried to walk up it, so I gave him an awkward, slightly difficult piggy back ride up the stairs. Tom laughed since I'm _so_ short and he's _so_ tall, but he didn't mock me. I told him that if he was going to criticize this method of transportation, then I could just levitate him up the stairs.

Tom and I quietly entered the dorm and undressed in the dark. Tom stripped down to his boxer briefs and undershirt, and I stripped down to my bra and panties. I quietly searched for a pair of pajama pants, slipped them on, and then found a clean, large, white T-shirt to wear. I took off my bra once I got the shirt on, and quietly and carefully found my way under my covers. Tom and I awkwardly situated ourselves in my twin size bed, but ended up not caring about personal space and semi-snuggled. We were slowly drifting into a peaceful, needed sleep, until all the lights in the dorm turned on and Lauren started yelling.

"Karma! Karma! Tom! Tom? Uhg!" She shouted in frustration and shook me awake, "Karma!"

"Whhaaaat?" I half yawned, half whined.

"There's something going on! We're all being called into the Great Hall!"

"Fuuuh." I groaned and slowly sat up. Tom didn't seem too excited to get up, but he didn't complain. He quietly stood up and dressed himself as I just slipped my feet into a pair of my near by shoes. Lauren watched Tom as he dressed, but she didn't ask any questions or make any comments. I yawned and then asked, "What's happening?"

"I don't know," Lauren quickly looked back at me, "What is going on?"

I tiredly rolled my eyes, "Tom and I are dating now. I'll explain later."

Lauren chuckled once, but then snapped back into reality. "Come on!" She rushed over to the door, "We have to go to the Great Hall!" Before I could ask her any more questions, she ran out of the dorm and down the stairs. I stretched and walked over to the door with Tom. He tiredly grabbed at my right hand with his left; I smiled up at him and walked down the stairs with him. That is, until they turned into a slide. We were too tired to be bothered by that, though.

Many people stared at us, and a few whispered, but we didn't really care. For one thing, we just had twenty minutes of sleep after staying up for nearly twenty-four hours. How I've been able to pull such nonsense off, I don't know, but my body is starting to get pissed, so I really need to start sleeping more. Tom didn't talk, he just led me down flights of stairs so we could go to the Great Hall, but once we were totally alone, I looked up at his handsome, tired, slightly stressed face and asked, "What's going on?"

Tom shrugged and then yawned. He swallowed the dry spit in his mouth before answering me, "I don't know—"

"Yes you do. Why are we being gathered like cattle?"

Tom laughed and then stopped walking, forcing me to stop walking, too. "Do you really think I know why we're—?"

"I know it, so please, just tell me already. I deserve the truth."

Tom smirked and stroked my face with his freehand. "What one deserves and what one receives are often two very different things."

I let go of his hand and angrily sighed. "Then I'll just walk down to the Great Hall by myself."

Tom grabbed my hands and pulled me against his chest, "There's no need to do that."

I looked up at him with tired, unconvinced eyes. "Stop beating around the bush."

Tom smirked, "I have a theory as to what is going on, but I don't really know."

I wiggled my hands free from his and pressed them firmly against his chest. "Tell me your theory then."

The corners of his mouth twitched as he whispered, "My theory is that the basilisk is up to something—."

I shoved him away from me and took three large, careful steps away from him. "Is that why you wanted to sleep in the Gryffindor Tower? Because it's too far away? Because it's too high up to get to you? To get… to get to who?" I gulped and then yelled, "Why are you hiding from it?"

Tom defensively put his hands up, palms facing outwards, and replied, "I'm not hiding from the basilisk—!"

"Then whom are you leading it to?"

"I'm not leading the damn thing anywhere! I just wanted to be with you!"

I stood there, quiet, but skeptical.

Tom sighed and ran his hands through his slightly messy hair, "I just wanted to feel loved. If I had known that you would explode like this I would have never—."

I sighed and walked back to him. I cuddled against his body while loosely wrapping my arms around him. "I'm scared. I'm not trying to point a finger at you, Tom-Tom, I'm just worried."

Tom wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me to him, "I'm a tad bit nervous, too."

I smiled and kissed his chest, "Finally, some regular human emotions."

Tom rolled his eyes and laughed, "We need to get to the Great Hall."

I yawned and then realized that I didn't check up on Nalo at all. Tom must have sensed the sickening feeling swelling in my gut, because he held me tightly and whispered,

"He's fine. They always personally evacuate the younger years."

I sighed out of relief and then yawned. Lets go before I pass out on these steps."

Tom laughed and basically supported me the whole way down the remainder of the staircases and to the Great Hall. Each student had an individual sleeping bag; we were separated by house, then by year, then by gender. To further organize us, they lined us up by alphabetical order by last name. I strained my tired ears, but quickly let myself rest when I heard Nalo respond to his name being called on the student checklist. Once Tom's name was called, he sneakily made his way over to where I am situated. I slid out of my sleeping bag and into his. He immediately wrapped his arms around me, and I did my best to absorb some of his warmth. I quickly fell asleep and ended up sleeping to around noon; a large group of people was sitting around us. They wanted to observe the odd pair, but they didn't want to bring attention to the professors about the oddity.

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**A/N: This chapter is really short, and I apologize for that. I'm super busy this weekend, but I didn't want to wait too much longer to update.

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**A/N: LOLO: Thanks for the constant comments! I appreciate them more than I can express. And I'm glad you find Tom's emotions believable, I'm doing my best to keep him in character, but still slightly alter him.

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**A/N: Isabella95: Thanks! I love to read Tom Riddle FF, but most of the stories I come across are either him being super mean for no real reason, him being creepy, or him being waaaay OC. No one really seems to bring attention to the fact that he's upset because he was abandoned and no one ever tells him why. I get so peeved when JK says he's incapable of love, because that means he's incapable of hate, too. And he goes to find his parents and all that, so obviously he's hungry for love, right? Right. :]**


	18. We In Here

**Chapter Eighteen: We In Here

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I woke up before Tom; I wanted to slip out of the sleeping bag, but his grip on me was too tight to move away from him, so I waited a while. He squeezed me to him as he yawned once he stirred awake, earning a small yelp from me. He grinned and let me go, but watched without any emotion on his face as I slipped out of the sleeping bag. I stretched and yawned before telling him, "We've drawn a crow. I'm going over to my friends."

He nodded, but I could tell he was disappointed, so I waited for him to get out of the sleeping bag before walking away. I hugged him tightly to him and whispered that he could walk over to me whenever he wanted to. He nodded as I walked away; I walked slowly since I didn't have a bra on. Doug immediately bombarded me with questions as I sat down with the group at the Gryffindor table. Doug stared at me and asked, "What's all that, huh?"

I sighed from lack of air and then said, "We argued and made some discoveries—"

"What?" His stare harshened, "_Discoveries?_"

I glared at him, "Discoveries."

"Like what?"

I snapped, "About the future; we didn't have sex, and even if we did, it'd be none of your concern."

"None of my concern?" Doug shouted at me, "None of my concern?"

"Oh calm down!" I shouted back and leaned forward, "You know if something bad happened I would have told you. I know we're close—"

"Close?" Doug half laughed, half yelled, "Damn right we're close!"

I sighed and then said in a normal voice so that people would stop staring at us, "I don't see what your big issue is here."

Doug rolled his eyes, snorted, and then walked away. I gawked angrily as he walked away, not looking back at me even once. He made a B line for his friends on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and sat with his back to me. The morning sun shined through the large windows in the Great Hall, giving him almost a halo. His broad, tired shoulders were highlighted, his hair glowed, and his skin seemed almost angelic; this moment was ruined by Jane's laughter. I looked at her; she told me in between laughs, "Doug looks angelic, and look over there!" She pointed over to Tom and his 'friends.' They're seated in the dark; well, it's not completely dark, but nowhere near as lighted as this part of the Great Hall.

"What about him?"

Jane chuckled and then said, "Tom's in the dark, Doug's in the light. Ironic?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "Are you suggesting that I follow some sort of symbolism?"

Jane laughed and shrugged.

I sighed again and put my face in my hands. I mumbled through my hands, "This isn't some sort of fan fiction, Jane. This is real. This is our life now. We have no idea how to get home or what we're supposed to do here, and yet we're fighting amongst ourselves. That is the worst thing we could."

Jane remained silent.

I looked up at her; Bueno awkwardly looked away while Jane stared down at her breakfast plate. I stared at Lauren, forcing her to look at me. "What?" She squeaked and semi-blushed.

"What was all that?" I asked and leaned towards her, "What's Doug's problem?"

She shrugged, "I, I don't know."

I stared at her with a blank, but obviously irritated facial expression.

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and stood up. "Why do we call each other friends if we're not telling each other everything? Why are we here together if we're just going to keep secrets and fight?"

No one answered me.

I walked away from them, but I didn't get ten feet before Doug shouted at me, "Aye! Aye!"

I drew in a deep breath and then looked over my shoulder at him.

He gulped and pursed his lips together, "Come here."

I sneered at him and started to walk away again, but then I heard,

"Please."

I stopped in my tracks, drew in another deep breath, and started to walk over towards him. I walked up to his right side and stared down at him, but he didn't look up at me, so I asked him, "What do you want?"

He snorted again and then looked up at me, "I was going to apologize, but you should pretty bitter."

One of the chasers laughed and said, "Slytherin's will do that to you."

I shot a glare at him, "Your opinion is not needed here."

Doug stood up, "Don't tell him what to do."

A look of disdain contorted my face, "Don't tell me what to do."

"I do as I please."

"Oh I'm sure you do." I snapped back and turned away, but he grabbed my elbow and turned me back towards him. "Let go of me!" I barked and yanked my arm out of his hand.

Doug glared at me, "Who do you think you are all of a sudden?"

"What—?"

"Don't act stupid!" He shouted at me and then added, "You come over here all bitter—"

"You're one to talk!" I screamed and ignored all the curious eyes focused on us, "I come over here to start up my morning and you bagger me about Tom!"

People started to get nervous, a sick type of excitement for our inevitable fight.

Doug rolled his eyes and angrily blew air out of his mouth. "Bagger? I ask you _one_ question—!"

"It was so accusatory!" I shouted, "You know damn well what I meant by 'discoveries,' but then you—"

"OH SHUT UP!" Doug shouted.

Bueno shut up and started to sprint towards us. He inserted himself in between us and tried to act as a peacemaker, but we bickered around and over him.

"SHUT UP?" I screamed, "YOU SHUT UP!"

"COME HERE AND MAKE ME!"

I dove around Bueno and tackled Doug to the ground, but Lauren pulled me off of him and shoved me to the side. I was going to yell at her, but she whipped out her wand. I stared at her in fearful awe, but then she transfigured my shirt into a sports bra. She nodded at me and said, "This fight will not be compromised by uncomfortable boobies."

I laughed, but then caught sight of a boiling Doug and stood back up. A crowd of students quickly gathered around us while Doug and I walked in circles, evaluating each other, looking for weak spots. Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar rushed down towards us, but Mr. Abar was more interested in watching than stopping us, and Mr. Abar couldn't get to Doug and me. Doug sneered at me, and I sneered right back; I was caught off guard when he rushed over to me, but I quickly leaped out of the way.

"What the hell was that?" I shouted in a high-pitched, surprised voice.

He laughed at my voice and then said, "We train to box, we train to wrestle. You want a fight? Come get it."

I laughed and quickly bent my head down towards my right shoulder and back up to show my acceptance of his challenge. I jumped up and down as if I was jump roping and waited for his next advance; I didn't have to wait long. Doug was blinded by his rage and dove for me, but I jumped out of the way, turned, and straddled his back. Doug landed on his chest, but quickly jumped back up, almost sending me off of him. "What are you doing?" He barked at me.

I laughed and then said, "We train for kickboxing, we train to survive."

Doug laughed and let himself fall onto his back, squishing me and forcing a painful shot of breath out of my chest. He jumped up, but I scrambled out of the way before he could do anything else. I jumped up and started to jump again, only this time I kept my fists up in the standard positions and jumped from left to right instead of just up and down in the same spot.

Doug rolled his eyes at me.

"I don't want to hurt you, Doug."

Doug laughed at me, "You're fuckin' tiny, Karma. I'm going to be the one to hurt you. I don't want to, but I will."

I rolled my eyes and let him charge at me again, but this time I didn't jump out of the way. Doug thought I was going to, so he swerved to the left; I jumped onto my left leg and extended my right leg, kicking him square in the chest. He stumbled backwards and gasped from the pain. I tugged his shirt collar with my left hand and punched him in the side of the face with my right fist. I jumped several inches back and let him come closer to me. I went to give him a left hook, but he caught my hand and punched me in the stomach. I cried out from the pain of his adrenaline powered, steel hand in my gut. Yes, I have abs, but it still hurts. Doug got one more punch in before he shouted, "You think Tom likes you so much? You think he gives a fuck for you? Here you are, in the midst of a fight, and he's leaving you on your own."

I swung out blindly and caught him in the other side of the face. He rolled off me and onto the floor, so I straddled him. I held him down with my left hand by the throat and punched him continuously in the stomach, "YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU SHUT! YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Doug grinned despite the pain from my furious punches.

I screamed like a banshee and then shouted, "WHAT'S YOUR MOTHER FUCKING PROBLEM? ARE YOU JEALOUS? YOU SHOULD'A SAID SOMETHIN! YOU SHOULD'A!"

Doug somehow rolled us over, but I rolled away. I slammed my body down on top of his back and pinned him as if we were wrestling. I twisted his dominant leg to bring him pain, but not enough to actually bring him any damage. We slid around the floor in awkward ovals, me on his back all the while. "WHAT SHOULD I HAVE SAID?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" I shouted back, "DO YOU HAVE FEELINS, SON? YOU GOT THOSE? YOU SHOULD'A EXPRESSED'EM! I AIN'T NO DAMN MIND READER! YOU KNOW THAT!"

"I DON'T KNOW YOU ANYMORE!" He screamed and rolled over, squishing me again. He punched me in the stomach and then pinned me down like I had him as I tried to scramble away, "YOU CALL YOURSELF A GRYFFINDOR? YOU'VE BEEN TRICKED! STRAIGHT UP TRICKED! HE'S NOT EVEN HERE FOR YOU! YOU GO PLACES LATE AT NIGHT! YOU JUST LET HIM LEAD YOU AROUND? YOU STUPID?"

I threw an elbow out and hit him square in the chest. I elbowed him over and over and pushed us over so that I'd land on him, but my back was still pressed against his chest. "I AM A GRYFFINDOR! AT LEAST I FIGHT FOR A REAL REASON! YOU JUST STORM OFF LIKE A BITCH AND THEN CAUSE SHIT!" I rolled over and straddled him. I held him down and screamed, "YOU LOOK LIKE A BITCH RIGHT NOW! YOU NEED A DOSE OF MAN THE FUCK UP, BOY! YOU LOOK LIKE A STRAIGHT UP BITCH RIGHT NOW. ARE YOU JEALOUS OF MY RELATIONSHIP? YOU SHOULD'A SAID SOMETHIN! YOU KNOW I WOULD'A SAID YES TO YOU FOR THE LAST GOD DAMN TWO YEARS! IT'S NOT MY FAULT IF YOU'RE A MOTHER FUCKING PANSY!"

I jumped off of him and then stomped down a foot away from his face.

He crawled up and shouted, "YOU WANT SHIT, KARMA? BECAUSE I'LL GIVE YOU—"

"NO!" I shouted and spun around to face him. I bent from the waist and leaned towards him, "I WANT YOU TO BE PERFECLTY HONEST WITH ME! I'M DONE WITH ALL THESE GAMES! WE'RE FRIENDS, WE'RE MORE, WE'RE FRIENDS, WE'RE MORE! WELL NOW WE'RE FRIENDS! MY LIFE HAS CHANGED. ALL OF OURLIVES HAVE CHANGED! YOU HAD CHANCES, DON'T BE A BITCH BECAUSE I MOVED ON BEFORE YOU!"

Doug glared at me and whispered, "Fuck you."

I stood up straight.

"You know you love me."

I sneered at him and whispered, "You know you love me back."

He grinned.

I kept my sneer, "This is bullshit. I make progress and it leads to a romance. You love me still? Let me go. Maybe we'll end up together, maybe not. We gotta try somethin' else since we never had the nerve to try each other."

Doug gulped and watched as the pain of my injuries started to set in. Tom rushed over to me and let me lean on him. His face was painted with concern as he helped me walk over to the nurse. Doug watched as Tom walked us away; I don't know how much of that Tom heard, but I do know that I want to give us a chance.

I love Doug, but Tom is different, and I was sent back here to do something for him. For the world. The world is more important than Doug or me. Or Tom.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I.

Don't.

Know.

I have to save the world, and I need my friends. I'm falling for Tom, he scares me, but this has a real chance. I can't put my life on hold anymore. I gotta live now, I have to. For me. For Tom. For the fate of the wizarding world.

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**A/N: Please review!**

**Sorry that this chapter was so short and so off beat. I had to get their feelings out there in the obvious.**

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**A/N: LOLO: Thanks! You're awesome, too!**

**Isabella95: Thank you for the compliment. :) I like to think that if he had just one ounce of love in the orphanage that he could have been a different person.**


	19. Young Folks

**Chapter Nineteen: Young Folks

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**

I sat angrily with Tom; I was quiet while he chatted with his friends. Who was Doug to treat me like that? To say those things to me? To have that sudden outburst? It doesn't fit. What's wrong with him? Or…what has someone done to him? A random right, really? I don't understand what's up with him. We love each other, but we're no longer _in_ love with each other, so what's the big fuss? Maybe he's trying to protect me. That would make sense since I'm getting involved with the guy who's supposed to be the wizarding equivalent of Hitler.

"Karma?"

"What?" I looked up at Tom, "What? I wasn't paying attention."

Tom grinned, "I couldn't tell."

"Ha ha ha."

Tom sighed, "The boys and I are going to have a smoke—"

"You smoke?"

"Yes."

I grinned and thought of his (hopefully no longer existent) desire for immortality, "That seems counterproductive."

Tom laughed and then sighed, "Only occasionally. Anyway, do you want to come?"

"No, but thanks."

He seemed peeved by my response, "And why not?"

"Because I don't like to smoke. I like staying an exceptional athlete."

Tom's lips pursed together while he stood up, "Well, I'll see you soon, then."

"I'll see you soon, then."

Tom and his friends walked over to an open window and started to smoke while I walked to the other side of the Great Hall to sit with Jane and Lauren. I explained to them what happened with Doug and how Tom and I got together literally over night. I was going to ask them while Doug has been acting out lately, but then T'uan ran up to us and shoved guitars into my chest and into Jane's.

"Come on," he rushed out, "Everyone is depressed. It's the perfect time for a show."

I laughed and put my guitar down on the table behind me while Bueno and Lazy Legs, with the help of Professor Dumbledore and a seventh year girl named Minerva, transfigured chairs, goblets, and other objects into the necessary equipment for a show since all of our musical things are either in our dorms or in Bozzi's classroom. Minerva accepted Dumbledore's challenge to transfigure our clothing from pajamas to jeans, and our shirts to tight, various colored shirts. I walked up to Lazy Legs and Bueno after she transfigured my pajamas into ripped, black jeans, and my shirt into a long sleeve, tight, yellow shirt. It was rather transparent, so I was glad that I had a pretty great sports bra on underneath my pajama shirt.

"Hey," Bueno said after pushing two of the tables together with a few other guys, "You wanna start a show with us?"

"Pff," I slid my hands into my back pockets, "of course."

Lazy Legs magically cleared off the table and then stepped on top of it. He turned on all the magical equipment; people started to stare at him while Bueno said, "Apparently we're free stylin' today."

"Oh, ho, ho!" I shouted and grabbed the spoon turned into magical microphone.

Lazy Legs immediately started to rap as soon as Jane and Bueno started to beat box. Greggor joined us by using a make shift turntable to add to the sound. I laughed and then rapped with Lazy Legs, challenging Jeff and T'uan, who immediately picked up mics and joined us. Our usual crowd quickly gathered around us, but many new people joined in on the fun, too, while a lot of others stared curiously. Our free styling rap didn't last long; T'uan and Bueno started to rap some of our favorite songs, leaving Lazy Legs and I to start free style dancing. Our dancing was becoming a little monotonous because of the long rap T'uan and Bueno picked, so Jeff grabbed a mic, laughed, and then said,

"I wanna rock now. I'm Rob Base and I came to get down."

Lazy Legs laughed and jumped off of the table, landing on his hands so he could do an awkward, dance like walk on his hands. I looked at Doug, who was in the crowd and said, "It takes two to make a thing go right."

He grinned, "It takes two to make it out of sight."

I flashed Lazy Legs a smirk and then did a back flip off of the table, earning a cheer from the crowd and a clap from Dumbledore. Doug quickly walked up to me and started to break dance with me; our moves matched and complimented each others movements and steps while Lazy Legs and Jane's moves were good, but awkward since they don't usually dance together.

Lauren grabbed the mic that Jane left on the table and started to sing the chorus while Doug jumped onto his hands and did a flip to the side, landed on his hands again, and did a spin while I dropped to the floor and did a spin around him. Jane cursed at us and then did a side spin and a quick flip over Lazy Legs' head spin, which, I must admit, was pretty impressive. Lauren ended the song short and started off the next song, "Shake It," by Metro Station.

Lazy Legs and Jane smirked while they shouted in unison, "Let's drop!"

Doug took a step forward, "Yeah?"

Lazy Legs took a step forward, too, "C'mon!"

I laughed while Lazy Legs and Jane started what looked like an easy sway, but quickly evolved into something more. Once the chorus hit, their moves exploded. In fact, they continued dancing to the middle of the song; their dances matched the beat and their moves highlighted their abilities and complimented one another. But when it was our turn to dance, well, I sort of felt bad for them; Doug and I have been dancing like this together for years, and we've gotten pretty good.

Doug grinned at me, winked, and then jumped up. He flipped in the air, landed on his hands, and bent his body into a "C" while I slid onto the floor and started to dance, too. We stood next to each other while Lauren, and the crowd was chanting, "shake it" too.

Doug looked at me and then shouted, "NOW IF SHE DOES IT LIKE THIS, WILL YOU DO IT LIKE THAT?"

I laughed and let him spin me into his chest and then directly out. We did matching jumps in the air as the beat exploded into the chorus; we flipped around each other, landed on our hands, and then did mock moon walks on our hands. The chorus' words started to play with the beat, so we really had no choice but to continue our outrageous movements. He slid onto his knees and did a spin while I did a back flip over him. He stood up, picked me up, spun me in the air, and landed me safely on my two feet; He did a tap dancing sort of move while pumping his hands from his chest. I got on my hands and tip does, pushed forward to do a head-slide, and then popped up into a kick flip. Our moves continued like that for a good minute until the song cool down with the "shake it" chant.

The crowd immediately roared with approval and clapped for us while Lazy Legs and Jane whispered something to each other and grinned when "We R Who We R" started to play. Lazy Legs sighed and Jane started with crossed legged dips and small head dips, but then started to dance around each other quickly. Lazy Legs dropped into almost a full split, but slid back up and did a curious, but impressive, jump. Jane did a summersault not just over him, but using his back as a starting point. They continued their bold and exciting moves until the middle of the songs, where Doug and I wasted no time. We snapped our fingers and did crossed legged dips, but then slid down into splits; I did a full spit, and Doug went as far as his male appendage would let him. I popped up, did a back bend, and slid under him while he jumped up and did an amazing flip and full body spin in the air. The tempo of the song was quickly gaining speed, so when Doug landed, I followed his lead; this was now a competition, and I wasn't going to be the one to lose it for him. We did jumps, squat like dips and side kicks while clapping our hands from our chests and doing moves that resembled break dancing, but wasn't quite break dancing. Lazy Legs smirked at Doug; Doug turned and then told me, "Fireworks."

At first I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but then I remembered how we did a move with actual fireworks last year at one of our shows. They were small fireworks, but they were still amazing. I nodded and tried to remember what charm we were taught; Doug apparently saw the confusion on my face, so he whispered the charm in my ear while spinning to be around me.

Lazy Legs smirk dropped right off of his face and onto the floor when he saw Doug whisper into my ear. Doug smirked and started running and doing back flips one way, and I the same, but in the opposite direction. Jane dropped onto her knees and frowned while the tempo of the song started to speed up to it's extremely fast pace from the ten seconds of almost slow motion like pace. Doug and I did exactly the same spin, and started to do front flips to each other. We put all our faith, energy, and power into our movements without a single thought. We both did a deep half lunge, half squat to power our jump into the air. The slow motion like pace of the song transitioned into the extremely fast pace while our flips turned into full body spins, and our hands smacked against and slid against one another's hands, causing fireworks to shoot out from both the left and right, and exploding in the air high above us. We flipped around each other and then landed on our hands on the marble floor of the Great Hall, earning many gasps from the crowd. We jumped up and down while still on our hands and did spins, landing us back onto our feet. We took advantage of the stressed, high tempo of the beat and started dancing against each other. Doug did a side jump and kick while I dropped to the floor, slammed my hands down, causing more fireworks to shoot off and up, and then jumped up. I landed on my hands and feet with my ass dipped towards the floor; I did a quick spin that somehow caused a mini fire around us. I quickly flexed my legs so that Doug could help me into our next flip; we both started fighting with the fire I caused, but that only added to our dance. I somehow wrapped around him and then did a flip around him that ended with him doing a flip too, but a flip out of the circle I made around him. He caught me and helped me dance/fling around his body, ending with my arms pressed against his back and locked underneath his pits, the rest of my body flexed and pointed up, and my legs in a full split. Doug stomped his feet, creating a friction like movement with the dragging, sending two more large fireworks into the air.

Lazy Legs and Jane dropped to their knees and wailed while everyone else in the Great Hall roared with appraisal and clapped loudly for us. Doug did a back bend so that I could safely get off of him while Dumbledore laughed and said, "I don't know if you'd be forever young with those moves, you might actually die early."

Doug and I laughed, noticed all the amazed people around us, and blushed.

Tom did a slow clap and made his way to the front of the crowd. He looked over my extremely sweaty form, the closeness to Doug, and then said, "I didn't know you could dance."

"Could dance?" Doug shouted, "That was nothing!"

I didn't have time to say anything or react.

Doug told Lauren and T'uan to keep the high paced songs coming. We flipped, dipped, turned, jumped, and did a lot of classic break dancing moves for about half an hour until a song ended and Doug spun me into Tom's chest. I wrapped my arms around him, panted into his chest, and then rasped out, "I need to sit down."

Tom walked me to the nearest table and then roughly let me go onto the seat. I looked up at him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"You two seem awfully close."

"We're good friends."

"Just friends?"

I glared up at Tom, "I have no attention of playing you, Tom, nor do I wish to hurt you. If I were still in love with Doug I would have said no to you. Don't go and put jealous thoughts into your mind. You know I wouldn't lie to you."

He drew in a deep breath, "And if I asked Nalo—?"

I sprung up and slapped him across the face. His friends gasped, but most of the people in the Great Hall were still staring at the "dance floor."

Tom glared at me.

"Don't you bother him with such pettiness. Don't you ever talk to him for information. I've fallen for you, Tom. If you don't believe me, then we can end this relationship now before we go any further."

Tom drew in another deep breath, ran his hands through his hair, and then said, "I'll stop it. I'm sorry."

I smiled and then loosely wrapped my arms around him. I rested my face against his chest and said, "Thank you."

He awkwardly wrapped his arms around me and whispered, "I trust you."

I kissed his chest and then sighed, "Can we sit back down? I'm totally drained."

Tom laughed at me and helped me back into my seat, this time gently, though. I rested against him and watched Lazy Legs and Jane try to regain their dancing dignity while Tom talked with his friends. I don't really know if I should even call them his friends; he still doesn't like them much, but I guess he needs _someone_ to talk with. I eventually got back up, but then time forced Tom onto the dance floor with me. He isn't that great of a dancer past the traditional, so I let him relax before teaching him basic break dancing. Abraxas somehow wormed his way between us and had me teach him how to do a flip; he's pretty fit, so it wasn't hard to teach him, but I quickly went back over to Tom. Tom practically prohibited Abraxas mingling with me; I don't know the state of their relationship right now, but I'm going to be honest, Abraxas creeps me out. He's cute, very cute, but he's craaaaazaaaaayeee. I mean, Tom is insane, too. But there's something about him that's still likeable. Abraxas is extremely arrogant because of his blood status; Tom has actual talent, and quite a bit of it, plus a lot of skill and intelligence. He's better than Abraxas. He's smarter, he's faster, he is more talented, more skillful, and much, much more charming. And he is, without a doubt, much more handsome. Maybe I'm shallow, but I don't care.

I do care about the shaking of the floor, though. It's not an earthquake, which makes it all the scarier.

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**A/N: Please review.

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**A/N: LOLO: I just want you to know that I love you.**

**Sort of.**

**I don't actually know you, but I love your constant reviews. So...here's a big cyber hug. :)**


	20. Save Me

**Chapter 20: Save Me

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The majority of the students started to panic, but the Heads of Houses were able to group people. I grabbed onto Tom's hands and looked up at him to see an expression on his face that I've never seen before: absolute fear. I slid my hands up to his face and forced him to look down at me before saying with a trembling voice, "What is happening? What is wrong?"

He rasped out, "The—the basilisk."

"But it doesn't come until it's called."

Tom gulped, "I already told you, it doesn't respect me fully."

"Why is it coming?" I have shouted, half squealed from fear.

"I don't know!" He screamed as the marble floors started to break apart. We were the last to be scene, so we were the last to be rounded, but Tom somehow made it out. Dumbledore gripped my left forearm to make me stay, but I pulled away and sprinted out to follow Tom. He yelled at me to go back and to protect Nalo, for that would be were I was really useful, but I didn't listen. I know that Nalo is a smart boy and that my friends would protect him, I also know that Tom is just going to wing it once he finds the basilisk. I don't care what he says, to a certain extent, he needs me.

I dove in after him as soon as he opened up the Chamber of Secrets. His sprinting became faster, but I was able to match him. I followed him – even though he was shouting at me – to where he believed the basilisk to be. He started to hiss like crazy, but to no avail. I started to try to talk to him, but then he shoved me back and screamed, "What are you still doing here? I told you to leave!"

"Don't fight with me!" I screamed back, "I'm the only person who is willing to help you!"

"I don't need your help!"

And then I laughed.

He glared at me.

In between laughs, I said, "You don't need help? You have a basilisk that not only doesn't fully respect you, but also is on the loose. And you have pureblood right here, so tell me again, why don't you need my help?"

"I don't need you in this!" He shouted through his teeth and took a step closer to me.

I took a step around him and followed the sound of the basilisk. He didn't say anything, but he did follow me. A plan? HAH.

"What are you doing?" He whispered.

I shrugged, "Doing what you apparently can't."

He shoved me again; I stumbled, but I didn't fall. I slapped him across the face and then booked it up the stairs. The excess movement from the basilisk shook the old stone, causing the stairs to start to crumble and parts of the ceiling to cave in. In fact, a whole first floor bathroom collapsed into the Chamber, brining a few of my friends into the abandoned basement of Hogwarts. I would have laughed, but they were screaming, and for a good reason. Doug, Jane, and Bueno screamed and ran past the staircase while a terrible hissing started to fill the chamber. Tom gulped and my eyes widened; I jumped off the stairs – I wasn't that high up, just like on the fourth stair – and started to run with them, but we were trapped because of the rubble.

They slammed their hands on top of their eyes while I strained my ears to listen to the sounds of the basilisk. Bueno whispered, "Nalo is with Dumbledore and the rest of them in the Great Hall."

I drew in a breath of relief.

Jane let out a chuckle, "We came looking for you, but forgot where J.K.R. said the bathroom was."

I laughed and then added, "Isn't it funny that we forget everything of importance in times of peril?"

"More like unfortunate." Doug said, not bothering to fight away his humored smirk.

Tom made his way over to us, but he didn't say anything. Bueno and Doug started tossing plans out into the air, but no one said anything, that is, until we heard the basilisk near by. Tom drew in a deep breath and started hissing at it, and the giant snake sounded like it scoffed at him. So I ripped my sleeve, folded it over a few times, closed my eyes, and tied it around my head as a blindfold. I turned around and gasped when I felt the cold air of the basilisk's hiss. Tom told me to turn around, but I didn't listen.

"Tell it I'm a pureblood."

"Why?"

"Just give it a try."

Tom sighed with bitterness, but then hissed my message.

Tom probably rolled his eyes, "He wants to know what you have to offer."

I laughed, "Tell _him_ that I can offer _you_ an heir."

Tom laughed nervously, "Wh-what?"

"It wants pureblood. It wants a master that has pure blood. You're the last of the Slytherin bloodline, and I have some of the purest blood in the world. Tell him we'll make a few kids."

Tom laughed nervously again, but then he hissed my message.

The basilisk hissed back.

"He," Tom gulped, "he approves."

I laughed, "I'm so glad. I've always wanted the approval of a giant snake."

Tom laughed, but then he gulped and said, "And he'll leave us alone, but…"

"No!" I screamed and turned around, pushing my friends away, "He can't have them! They're not food!"

Jane, Bueno and Doug all stiffened from the fear.

Tom said in a voice that made me know he was fighting away tears, "I can't stop him."

Jane, Bueno and Doug took off, and the basilisk followed. I grabbed my wand out of my pocket and started shouting hexes and curses and jinxes at it, but to no avail. My friends barely dodged the thing, so I put my wand away and ran after it. Tom tried to hold me back, but I fought him off of me and sprinted toward the basilisk. I picked up pieces of rubble and threw them at it, but it only annoyed and slightly distracted it. Tom hissed at it, probably telling it the reasons why it should spare my life.

The basilisk hissed back.

I jumped onto its tail and climbed my way up, even though it started to fling itself around, trying to get me off, but I held on tightly. Tom shouted at me while my friends tried to find a way out. There was no plan, there was just the moment, and that moment called for action.

I needed something to scratch at its eyes, and out of the blue, Fawkes came to my aid. Tom stared up in awe, maybe with some disbelief, maybe even with some disgust. Fawkes squawked and then dropped the Gryffindor Sword near me; I reached out and grabbed it. I cut my hand on the blade, but I didn't care. I gripped the golden handle and then drove the blade deep into the back of the serpent. It hissed and withered, trying to get me to fly off, but I held on. I stabbed at it a few times, each time getting closer and closer to its throat. I'd aim for the heart, but I have no idea where that would be.

Tom started to cast spells at the basilisk, keeping it away from my friends. I would have shown some gratitude, but survival stole my focus. The basilisk took my moment of happiness because of Tom to fling me off of it. It slid around and opened its jaws; it hissed at me and dove down to devour me, but Fawkes viscously clawed at its left eye. It flung its head up and tried to snap Fawkes into its mouth, but missed. Fawkes took out its other eye and then scratched the top of its head to pieces. The basilisk started to fall near me, actually, right on top of me, so I squatted down, gripped the handle tightly with both my hands, and held it right above me. When the basilisk fell on top of me, its jaws were closed, allowing the sword to piece right through both of its jaws. It jolted up, but then Fawkes somehow gripped me, probably sliding his claws through my clothes, and I stabbed at the basilisk over and over. It screeched out in a hiss, thrashed against the large wall behind it, and then slammed down onto the damp floor.

My friends were a step away from passing out; Tom came up and stared at me. I was drenched in sweat and the blood of the basilisk. The adrenaline that helped me fight off the basilisk quickly left my body, causing me to feel terribly weak. My friends rushed over to me while Tom carefully examined me right after I feel to the floor. He gulped and then said, "You have a deep cut on your hand."

I nodded and then rasped out, "From catching the sword."

His facial expression showed all his concern. He whispered, "Some of the venom has seeped into your body via your hand wound."

I laughed.

Everyone looked shocked.

I rolled onto my back and stared up at my friends. I coughed and then said, "We got sucked into a time hole, twisting space and reality, just so I can die because of catching a sword."

They chuckled at the dark humor, but they were all silently crying.

Tom collapsed and held me to him. He choked on his tears and whispered to me, "I won't let you die."

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**A/N: Please review!**

**A/N:alexandra101: I love the character of Tom Riddle, and I think he deserves a better fate than Lord Voldemort. :)

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******A/N: **the-perfect-screw-up: I'm glad you rediscovered the link. I know what it feels like to know what that story you liked was, but not being able to find it again for a while.

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******A/N: **Isabella95: It loves you, too. lol. I give the best cyber hugs. Jus' sayin. :P

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** A/N: VerityEldrich: Hope you liked the update. :)**


	21. Frozen Fire

**Chapter Twenty-One: Frozen Fire**

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I swallowed the thick spit in my mouth and managed to say, "Just go. Get out. Help the others."

Tom didn't say anything, but he also didn't move.

My friends remained silent.

My world was ever so slowly turning white. I couldn't see any detail of any object. I wondered if I was just passing out or if I was dying, but either way, my main way of understanding the world was leaving me. I felt the hands of several people lift me up; the cold air wasn't as cold as the wet stone floors, but it did rush into my wound, giving it extra stings. I might have cringed or made some sounds of pain, but I was too calm. My body was almost totally numb, I could only see the purist of whites, and my heart felt relaxed. I can't recall too many moments when my heart felt stressed, but this… this is different.

I guess I can't compare the feelings of life with the feeling of death. The heartbeat of the living holds the hope of a fantastic moment. The heartbeat of the living keeps the whole body moving so that dreams can be more than slowly fading pictures in the mind's eye. The heartbeat of the living is the exhale of God. The heartbeat of the dead holds the fact that you're about to get what you've spent your whole life earning. The heartbeat of the dead signals your soul to start taking charge. The heartbeat of the dead is when God inhales, when God knows you've done your job.

My skin warmed when I felt my body land on a table. The air was warm and the table was strong, giving my body no need to worry. I felt old, experienced hands push my hair back and gently open my eyes, one lid at a time, flicking some droplets into each. My vision cleared up enough for me to see a crowd of worried people suddenly turn to see Fawkes. The owner of the hands jumped back as Fawks stretched out his wings, let out a loud call, and dove to me. Dumbledore held Tom back while I somehow found the strength to slightly sit up. Fawkes retracted his wings; the force sucked me up several feet above the table. Fawkes let out another call as he bursted into flames and flew into my torso.

I couldn't hear. I couldn't feel. I couldn't smell. I couldn't taste the spit in my mouth, and I could barely see. Fawkes' fire wrapped around my body before sliding into my skin, burning all the venom out of my body. Loudly panting, I collapsed back onto the table; I was unable to close my eyes even the tiniest bit, but I still couldn't see. I mean, I could see, but I couldn't register what I was seeing. All I knew was that Fawkes called out one more time, but not out loud for all to hear; it was in my head, letting me know I was safe, that I would be ok.

I drew in one, long, deep breath and somehow rolled off of the table, bounced off of the bench, and fell on my belly onto the floor. I slowly slid my hands, palm down, next to my breasts, and lifted my self up. I stared at the floor and tried to understand what just happened. I used my knees to help me rest as I turned my head to the right. Dumbledore squatted down next to me with tears behind his half moon classes. He smiled and then whispered,

"Fawkes now lives in you."

I gulped and mumbled out with a rusty voice, "Wh—what?"

He used his left hand to tuck the hair on my face behind my ear. "You had too much poison for him to give you tears. It was too deep in your body anyway to cry the problem away." He chuckled at his joke, but then continued, "So Fawkes gave you his life instead of watching you die."

I collapsed back onto the cool floor. I gulped, drew in a breath, and then looked back up into Dumbledore's eyes. I smiled and felt life fill my face with gratefulness. "I can't express my appreciation."

Dumbledore scooped me into his arms and hugged me tightly. "Just enjoy living. That's the only way to give meaning to Fawkes' sacrifice."

I quietly cried out of happiness.

Dumbledore pulled away and wiped away my tears. He helped me onto my feet, turned to the large crowd, put his wand to his throat, and then said, "Today you have witnessed three of the bravest acts possible."

I looked at Dumbledore with complete curiosity.

His eyes twinkled and his lips formed a smile. "All of your lives have been saved because of Karma's efforts to rid Hogwarts of the basilisk. She successfully killed the beast."

I exhaled slowly and for a good minute.

Dumbledore's smile widened, "Fawkes was able to save Karma's life by helping her in the Chamber and sacrificing his life for hers."

I drew in a deep breath.

"But Fawkes couldn't have helped if Nalo didn't let him out of his cage."

I gasped and looked around for my brother.

Nalo ran up to me and squeezed me. He looked up at my shocked face and smiled. He whispered, "You read the books to me."

I laughed, squatted down, and squeezed him tightly. I cried on him and told him, "I love you so much."

Nalo cuddled into me and said, "I love you, too."

The crowd didn't clap, and really, it would have been wrong if they did. Dumbledore squatted down to us and said, "There's a strong wind blowing."

I looked at him.

He smiled, "And it's blowing the way of the future."

I immediately understood and offered Nalo a piggyback ride; with some help from Tom, all of my classmates were gathered and met in the Forbidden Forest, the same spot where we arrived. They jumped in one a time, eyes shut tight, bodies stiff, and hopes high. Tom and I watched my classmates disappear one at a time into a large, white, swirling hole three feet off of the ground. Nalo asked Doug to toss him in. Nalo entered the white hole laughing.

Tom abruptly turned me to him and wrapped me in his arms. He stared into my eyes before kissing me. I enjoyed our short kiss before saying, "I love you."

He nodded and whispered, "I'll find you."

I nodded. I would have stayed with him, right there, right then, forever, but Doug reminded me that we had to go. I kissed Tom goodbye before jumping in the white hole with Doug. It swallowed us up; our entrance exploded like a firework with pinks and yellows while we were sucked into twirling tubes. We were regurgitated into the airport. I found myself back in my seat, next to Jane.

She looked at me, looked at her burrito, and then threw it away. She sat back down next to me and then said, "Was that a dream?"

I looked around at all the confused faces of my classmates before looking at her with a wide smile, "No."

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**A/N:** This is the last _chapter_, but I'm going to write an epilogue in the next week or two.

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**A/N:** **Riddlezskittles:** Thanks for the compliment. I wanted to make sure every part was organized, although there were a few parts I feel like I rushed, so I'm probably going to go back and fill plot holes, possibly add extra chapters here and there. And I would never kill Karma. :P

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**A/N: sleepwalkingmuggle:** Thanks! I tried to keep Tom as an asshat, but able to change since he's still young and hasn't committed the worst of his beginning evils.

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**A/N: Luxord's Xigbar: **I totally know what you mean by the emo corner. He's essentially an anti-christ like character, not some kid with a few problems with puberty.

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**A/N: alexandra101:** C: I have a weakness for Tom and happyish endings. haha

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**A/N: Freeasair:** Here it is. lol


	22. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

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I graduated from high school and moved on to Vassar. I saved up all my extra credits – most people used them to graduate early – for Vassar; I walked in a junior, cutting a lot off of my tuition. I was able to sit down with a financial aid officer and ended up only having to pay about thirty percent of my tuition. I applied and received many scholarships, so in the end, I really only paid about five percent of my fees. I continued my athletics at Vassar while continuing to dedicate myself to my studies. I ended up transferring to Cornell Law after graduating from Vassar.

I'm twenty-four now, almost twenty-five; I interned at a renowned law firm during my years at Cornell, and now I work there. Nalo lived with our grandmother during my university years, but now he lives with me. He's sixteen now; I have enough money to support an upper middle class lifestyle, which includes sending him to a private high school. I may just be his older sister, but I don't allow him to slack. I don't expect perfect grades, but I do require that he try his best. I send him to tutoring and I make him take out the trash and kill bugs around the house since he doesn't pay any bills. Unlike many of my neighbors, I don't have a maid, so Nalo does the dishes most nights, and he keeps his room and bathroom tidy. I dust and vacuum, keep my bedroom and bathroom tidy, and do our laundry. Nalo doesn't have a job, but he's often busy with his schoolwork and basketball – he made varsity this year, his sophomore year. I do my best to go to all of his games, but he understands that if I have a case I can't bail.

Our life is absolutely wonderful now. Nalo grows more and more with each passing day. He's been dating a girl on the varsity dance team for about a month now. Her name is Aubrey; she's quiet, a bit shy, and a very nice girl. I would have never guessed that she would be on the dance team due to her shyness and modesty, not that I think dance team girls are sluts and/or stupid, I just figured her a bookworm when I first saw her. She comes from an old moneyed family; once she came over early to pick him up the other day – I didn't buy Nalo a new car; he has his license now and is under my insurance, but doesn't want to drive the Oldsmobile – and saw him doing the dishes. She asked him, "Why don't you have the maid do that so we can go?"

He shrugged and kept loading rinsed off dishes into the washer, "We don't have a maid."

She looked a little curious, "Why not?"

I walked into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, "Because I don't feel the need to hire one."

She nodded, but I knew she didn't fully understand where I was coming from.

I walked over to the sink. Nalo took a step to the side as I turned on the cold water. "We grew up poor, barely scraped by. Just because I made it, got out of there and am now successful doesn't mean I want Nalo to forget where we're from."

She nodded again while Nalo flashed me a "don't embarrass me" face.

I walked out of the kitchen and sat down on my large sofa. I bought fifteen feet of suede, goose-down couch to line the wall opposite of my large flat screen. I plopped down on the piece of sofa that comes out like those chairs in the stereotypical scenes of a therapist's office. I yawned, turned on the news, and looked over Nalo. He has significantly changed since he was ten. His hair is short, but it's curly and dark brown. He's six-foot-three now, and he's a very light olive. He's played basketball since seventh grade, and now, with the intensity of high school basketball practices, he's a muscular guy. His girlfriend, Aubrey, is around five-foot-seven, has dark blonde hair, green eyes, and fair, clear skin. She's a medium sized girl, but still obviously fit. She dresses rather modestly, but you can still tell.

Nalo walked over to me and said, "We're leaving now. I'll text you when we get there and when we're heading back here."

"Ok." I smiled at him, "Be safe."

He nodded, smiled back, and then walked away.

I watched them walk out the door before I sighed. I've dated since my year at Hogwarts, but I've only been in one serious relationship since then. I find myself guest speaking at my old high school and donating to the athletic and art departments instead of looking for potential husbands. Honestly, I don't really want anyone but Tom. I've been waiting almost ten years, and I really should stop kidding myself, but I just can't.

I can't think about this anymore either.

I got up, turned off the T.V., slipped into a pair of fashionable boots and a thin, but warm, coat, and then grabbed the keys to my black BMW. I put my phone in an inside pocket of my coat before walking into my garage. I opened the garage door, got in my car, and then I cautiously into town. It's dark and sprinkling, but hey, it's January. I had a fun time finding a parking spot, but once I did, I went into Borders. I trolled sections that don't interest me to kill some time before tracking down the escalator to the second floor. I wasn't paying much attention to the others – not that there was a lot of other people being how it's nine o'clock on Friday night – while I inspected the fiction section. I bumped into a tall man, took a step back, and quickly apologized.

He grinned at me.

He looked familiar, so I quickly scanned his face. His hair was jet black, short, and neatly combed. His face was freakishly symmetrical, his dark eyes gorgeous, his medium lips pale from the cold of outside. His nose perfectly straight, his skin pale, his grin too familiar, as if they've been tattooed to my cornea in a past life.

He breathed out and said barely above a whisper, "Karma."

I blinked and gulped before nodding.

He put the book in his hands back on the shelf. "It's me, Tom."

I stared at him. "H—how?"

He laughed, "I'm happy to see you, too."

I ran my hands through my hair and laughed. "Of course I'm happy to see you!"

"Let's get a drink. There's a coffee shop in here, right?"

I nodded, grabbed his right hand, and walked us to it. We didn't order anything once there. We sat down at a small table for two; I stared at him in disbelief, so he started the conversation. He drew in a deep breath and then said, "I…I dedicated most of my life to understanding time and space."

I nodded.

"I finally mixed the right spells to create a worm hole…" He grinned, blushed even. "I've been living here in the muggle world, in your time, for two years. I figured you'd make something of yourself, so I checked out prestigious schools here. I found out you went to Cornell and where you ended up working, so I moved to Ithaca."

I chuckled, "And have been trolling the near by cities ever since?"

He laughed, "Yes."

I reached my hands out to him; he did the same and held mine, then continued talking.

"I was actually just looking for a book here." He grinned, "I've been working at chemistry lab half an hour from here—"

I leaned over the table and kissed him. When I broke away I breathed, "Move in with me."

He gave me a humored, inquisitive look. "Isn't that a bit fast in this day and age?"

I laughed, "You've changed, Tom." I laughed again, "I must have really done a good job back in Hogwarts if you've abandoned your muggle hating ways."

He grinned. "I've missed you too much to focus on that."

I smiled.

"You…you were different. No one liked me before that, no one bothered to love me.

I nodded.

He gulped, "I'm not a healthy person, Karma, you know that. But… you added things to my life that I'll never be able to understand or express."

I got up and moved my chair next to him. We continued talking about how he found me, how our meeting tonight was no accident. I took him home – not for anything naughty, but because, really, we need to not just live together, but live together for the rest of our lives. I didn't say that, but if he weren't totally in love with me, would he have found out how to manipulate time? I love him. I want no one else.

We fell asleep on my couch; Nalo walked in and shook me away. Tom explained everything. Nalo went to sleep in disbelief, but I know I'll wake up happy every day for the rest of my life.

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**A/N: THE END! REVIEW? :D**

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**A/N: alexandra10:** Which is why they have to find each other in the end. :P haha

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**A/N: ilovehappyendings:** Thank you so much! I LOVE long reviews! I tried to make Karma (and her friends) as realistic as possible. The characters are based off of people in my life, but I tweaked and added some aspects to their personalities. Life is hard, but I love the people in mine. Thanks for the good wishes and awesome compliments! Also, I'm going to go back and add a few chapters to fill in the plot holes. I feel like I missed key parts in Tom and Karma's developing relationship. I was considering making it "M," but I don't think it's too bad, you know? There are sexual suggestions and it gets a bit over the top when they go to the bathroom after the polyjuice - lololol - but I think the "M" would scare a lot of people off, making them think that Tom's a sex object in the story, and not so much of a story of change. And thanks for the constructive criticism! Most people think that means rude bashing, but you were actually helpful. I'll definitely go back and spiff up the intro when I'm adding chapters. Thanks! :)


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